Request for Roads Safety Audit Report Denied Due to Exemption in Environmental Information Regulations

Strategic Insights -

The Scottish Government has responded to a request for a copy of the roads safety audit report shared with the Roads Authority for a recently completed scheme at the Swallow Roundabout A90/A85 junction at Dundee, citing an exemption in the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004. The report was deemed to be environmental information, triggering the application of the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Scottish Government denied the request for the roads safety audit report due to an exemption in the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
  • The exemption was applied because the report contained environmental information, which required the Scottish Government to deal with the request under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004, rather than the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
  • The public interest test was applied, and it was determined that the public interest lay in favor of upholding the exemption, as there was no material effect on the outcome of the request.
  • The Scottish Government is committed to publishing information released in response to Freedom of Information requests.
  • An exception under regulation 11(2) of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 applied to some of the information requested, as it contained personal data of a third party, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles.

Statistics:

  • 1 request for a copy of the roads safety audit report was made to the Scottish Government.
  • 1 exemption in the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 was applied to the report.
  • 1 public interest test was conducted to determine whether the public interest in disclosing the information outweighed the public interest in applying the exemption.
  • 0 public interest considerations were deemed material to the outcome of the request.

Sources:

  • Scottish Government - Response to Freedom of Information Request
  • Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
  • Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004