Dear Mr Elibank

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST - EMERGENCY ROAD SIGNAGE

Thank you for your e mail to the HAIL Enquiry line of 18 March 2010, regarding,

Has your agency ever commissioned, bought or stored any emergency

road signage, for use in civil contingencies, when evacuating

London, or designating High Capacity Emergency Access Routes?

What do these signs say?

How many are there?

How much did they cost?

Have any of them ever been used?

Have any of them ever been damaged?

I am writing to advise you that we do hold some information that is relevant to your request 18 March 2010 but regret to inform you of my decision not to disclose this information.

The information you requested is being withheld in reliance on the exemption in Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 because the costs of identifying whether we hold some or all of the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting the relevant parts will exceed the statutory limit. This is because the information is not held in a single source, and would require considerable research to collate.

If you are unhappy with the decisions made by us in relation to your request, you may ask for an internal review. Attached is a note detailing our internal review process. You should contact me if you wish to complain.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me.

Yours sincerely

Howard Owen

Network Resilience Team

Email: [email address]

The Highways Agency Freedom of Information Act 2000 Complaints Process

If you have a complaint about the response to your Freedom of Information Act request, there is a 3-step internal process to address your concerns.

To start the process, write to the contact named in the covering letter you received with the response to your request, explaining your complaint.

All complaints will be dealt with, within 40 working days of receipt.

Step 1

The person who handled the request originally will reconsider the decisions made about the information that was released, any that was withheld, fees charged, and any refusal to answer the request. If your complaint is upheld, we will:

If the original decisions are upheld, there is a second evaluation:

Step 2

The complaint is referred to a Senior Civil Servant for re-consideration. If they feel an independent review is required, the Ministry of Justice may become involved.

The Senior Civil Servant will write to you concerning your complaint, and how they have decided to resolve the issue. If the original response is upheld, you may wish to use the third step in the complaints process:

Step 3

If your complaint is not upheld, or you feel your complaint has not been handled properly, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

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