Asset Management, Finance and Technical
Trunk Roads: Network Management
Buchanan House, 58 Port Dundas Road, Glasgow G4 0HF
Direct Line: 0141 272 7281 Fax: 0141 272 7272
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[email address]
Mr David Hansen
Your ref:
c/o [FOI #13801 email]
Our ref:
FOI/09/00858
Date:
10 September 2009
Dear Sir
Review of the application of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 request
Forth Replacement Crossing – 3 Peer reviews
FOI/09/00858
I have been asked by the Chief Executive of Transport Scotland to review, at your request, the
application of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 (FOISA), specifically to review the
“failure to provide the information in a readable form”. I was not connected in any way with the
original analysis of your original question and come to the review with a fresh pair of eyes.
Under the terms of section 11 of FOISA a public authority is only required to provide information
requested in a particular format where that request is “reasonably practical”. The documents
that you sought do not exist in the particular format that you requested and in changing the
documents to that format we would be potentially destroying information, an act which is
specifically prohibited under FOISA. It was therefore not “reasonably practical” for us to provide
the documents to you in plain text format.
Having reviewed the documents sent to you, I consider that whilst not perfect, they are readable
and understandable and I therefore consider that Transport Scotland has met its obligations
under FOISA. However, should you wish us to print them out and send them to you in hard copy
please let me know and I shall arrange for this to be done.
You should note that the information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any non-
commercial research you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other re-use,
for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder. Most
documents supplied by the Scottish Government will have been produced by government
officials and will be Crown Copyright. You can find details on the arrangements for re-using
Crown Copyright material on the OPSI website http://www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/index.htm.
If you are still dissatisfied about the handling of your request, you have 6 months from the date
of receipt of this letter to appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner in writing detailing the
www.transportscotland.gov.uk
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reasons for your dissatisfaction. The Scottish Information Commissioner can be contacted as
follows:
Kinburn Castle
Doubledykes Road
St Andrews
Fife
KY16 9DS
Email: [email address]
Tel: 01334 464610
Yours sincerely,
Alexander D. Ramage
Head of Management Information Systems
Trunk Roads: Network Management
www.transportscotland.gov.uk
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