Dear Highways Agency

It has long been policy that motorway service areas are to provide
services ancillary to the main purpose of a journey and are not to
be destinations in their own right.

I would like to request under the Freedom of Information Act the
results of any research which has been carried to establish to what
extent this policy is being upheld, or whether motorists' decisions
to travel on the Highways Agency network, or their choice of route
on the network are influenced by the services available at
particular MSAs.

I would also like to request any correspondence between the agency
and MSA operators regarding past, current or proposed services
offered at MSAs and this policy. If this request would exceed the
cost limit I would accept correspondence from the last three years.

I would prefer to receive a response via 'whatdotheyknow.com' and
request permission for that site to publish your response.

Finally, may I thank you and all your colleagues for your excellent
work and the high standard to which you maintain the trunk road
network, on which we all depend.

Yours faithfully,

Guy Montag.

Mr Montag

Further to your email to the Highways Agency Information Line on 11th August 2008 regarding a Freedom Of Information Request in relation to policy on Motorway Service Areas (MSAs).

Your request was passed to the Spatial Planning Team Of the Agency for reply as we are responsible for overseeing the application of MSA policy in England.

I can confirm that Government policy still is that MSAs should not become destinations in their own right, I attach a copy if the relevant policy Circular, 01/2008, for your information.

In relation to your request for the results of any research to establish to what extent this policy is being upheld, or whether motorists' decisions to travel on the Highways Agency network, or their choice of route on the network are influenced by the services available at particular MSAs.
In 2006 the Department for Transport carried out research to assess the effectiveness of MSAs in reducing fatigue related and other accidents, this research included consideration of the variations in facilities at MSAs and the Brand of MSA, the research is available on the Department for Transport's website at the URL below.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety/res...

In relation to your request for any correspondence between the Highways Agency and the MSA operators regarding past, current or proposed services offered at MSAs and the policy on destination in own right. We have estimated that the cost of compiling your request will exceed £600. Section 12 of the Act does not oblige us to comply with requests if they exceed this limit.

However in line with the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act I would like to provide you with as much information as possible. The majority of the information you requested would be held on the files of the Spatial Planning Team as the central policy unit, with further correspondence possibly held on the files of the Agency's operational area teams. We have scoped the extent of a search of the last three years of the Spatial Planning Team's files and have deemed that this would be within the £600 limit.

Please contact me urgently with a view to discussing this possibility of reducing the scope of the request so it comes within the £600 threshold.

Please note that if we cannot agree a revised request by Friday 19th September I will have to refuse your request in reliance on the section 12 exemption.

If you wish to discuss any of the above, please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Regards

Kathryn Burgess, Policy and Procedures Advisor
Highways Agency | 5 Broadway | Broad Street | Birmingham | B15 1BL
Tel: +44 (0) 121 6788468 | Fax: + 44 (0) 121 6788211
Web: http://www.highways.gov.uk
GTN: 6189 8468

Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers
Highways Agency, an Executive Agency of the Department for Transport.

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Dear Ms Burgess

Thank you for your response, the attached DfT Circular 01/08 and
the link to DfT Road Safety Research Report 57. I have also now
located the Highways Agency's previous consultations on roadside
facilities which I have found particularly helpful in understanding
how the current policy has developed.

I now appreciate that my request for any correspondance with MSA
operators regarding services offered and destination in own right
was too broad to be practical.

As an alternative, would you accept a request for a list of any
current, previous or proposed services offered (or to be offered)
at an MSA (with the identity of the MSA involved), which the
Highways Agency has opposed because it was believed that the
service would act as a destination in its own right?

If appropriate, I could then follow up with a tightly focused
request for information on a particular MSA. If this is
impractical, I would be happy to limit my request to the last three
years.

My research is not urgent, although I appreciate that you are
subject to a deadline specified in the Freedom of Information Act.
I should let you know that I will be away between Friday 29 August
and Sunday 7 September and will not have access to the internet
during that time.

Many thanks for your help with my research.

Yours sincerely,

Guy Montag

Dear Mr Montag

Thank you for your response. As I previously mentioned the majority of the information you requested will be held on the files of the Spatial Planning Team, with further correspondence possibly held on the files of the Agency's regional operational and planning teams. Your follow up request would therefore, still exceed the £600 limit. However we estimate that we would be able to carry out a search of the files belonging to the Spatial Planning Team, for the last three years, without exceeding this limit.

Please could you get in touch to discuss whether this is acceptable to you. Please note that I am on leave from Monday 8th September to Monday 15th September inclusively. Therefore I would be grateful if you would contact my colleague Iain Reidy ([email address]).

Regards

Kathryn

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Dear Kathryn,

Thank you for your response. I had imagined that a follow up
request relating to a particular MSA would only need a search of
files held by the regional team where the MSA was located and thus
might be possible within the cost limit.

However, I have not yet established that any such MSA exists, so I
will accept a search of the files held by the Spatial Planning Team
for the last three years to identify any MSA where the Agency has
opposed a service or proposed service for reasons of 'destination
in own right' and the nature of the service involved; and accept
that a detailed follow up may not be practical.

Many thanks for your help with this.

Kind regards

Guy

I am out of the office until Tuesday 16th September, if you need a reply before then please contact contact Janice Allen on 0121 678 5923.

Thanks

Kate

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Dear Guy

Thanks for your reply - please note that that the time-limit for responding to your request for information which we received on Tuesday 12th August needs to be extended.

It is occasionally necessary to extend the 20 working day time limit for issuing a response. In the case of your request, I must extend the time limit by approximately 20 days because the information requested must be considered under one of the exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act. This extra time is needed in order to make a determination as to the public interest.

I hope to let you have a response by 8th October. If you do not receive my response or further information by then, please contact me and I will investigate the matter.

The specific exemptions which apply in relation to your request are Section 41: Breach of Confidence and Section 43 Commercial Interests and Trade Secrets and we consider these to apply because of the commercial nature of the information you requested.

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

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request you may ask for an internal review. A leaflet detailing our internal review process is available. If you require a copy, please phone the Highways Agency Information Line on 08457 50 40 30; or e-mail [Highways Agency request email]

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

Please excuse the delay in us dealing with your request, I am endeavouring to have a final response with you as soon as posisble.

Best Regards

Kathryn

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Dear Kathryn

Thanks for the update. I appreciate that there are commercial
interests to consider and have no objection to the extension.

Kind regards

Guy

Dear Kathryn,

Has there been any progress on a response to this request? I have
not heard anything since your email of 19 September.

kind regards

Guy

Mr Montag

I am writing to confirm that we have now completed our search for the information, which you originally requested on 11th August. During ongoing discussion via email we subsequently agreed a scaled down version of your 11th August request in order that it not be refused under the £600 cost limit and it is to that request which I am responding.

A copy of the information is attached, you will notice that I have redacted the surnames and email addresses of both junior civil servants and third parties.

In keeping with the spirit and effect of the Freedom of Information Act, all information is assumed to be releasable to the public unless exempt. We will, therefore, be simultaneously releasing to the public the information you requested, together with any related information that will provide a key to its wider context via our website: http://www.highways.gov.uk/

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Any other re-use, for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder.

Some of the documents supplied by us will have been produced by government officials so will be Crown Copyright. You can find details on the arrangements for re-using Crown copyright on the Office of Public Sector Information website at: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/index.htm.

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request, you may ask for an internal review. A leaflet detailing our internal review process is available. If you require a copy, please phone the Highways Agency Information Line on 08457 50 40 30; or e-mail [Highways Agency request email]. 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

I would like to take this opportunity to personally apologise for the time it has taken for the information to reach you, if you have any queries about this email, please contact me.

Regards

Kathryn

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Dear Kathryn

Thank you very much indeed for this information and your earlier
help in formulating a workable request to reveal this. I've no
objection to the redactions you've made.

kind regards

Guy

Mr Montag

Further to my email below, I recently received a letter from a member of the public who had reviewed our correspondence via whatdotheyknow.com, the letter highlighted some errors in my responses to you. I thought it only right to advise you of this.

Firstly my email to you advising you of the exemptions being considered was unclear, I should have stated that the extension of time for a public interest test was for section 43 only and not for section 41 as well. I should also have advised that we were looking at section 43 (2), prejudice to commercial interests, as there were no trade secrets to be withheld.

Secondly I should have provided in my correspondence of the 19th September an estimated date at which a response would be given and advised that the notice covered a period of 20 working days and not simply days.

I would like to apologise for these errors.

Kind Regards

Kathryn

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Hi Kathryn

Thanks for letting me know about this - maybe your correspondent
has an interest in MSA policy and the information revealed is of
use to them as well. I expect they will see this - if they wish to
contact me they can send a message through whatdotheyknow.com.

I must admit I didn't look too closely at the specific exemptions
under consideration at the time and therefore didn't notice the
Section 41 error, which would now only be significant if the
request had been refused through that exemption. Likewise I didn't
spot the difference between 'days' and 'working days'. Your
corespondent certainly has an eye for detail.

Many thanks for letting me know about this and for the information
supplied in response to my request

Kind Regards

Guy