A27 Arundel Bypass Preferred Route Approval and ancillary documentation
Dear Highways England Company Limited,
A27 Arundel Bypass Preferred Route Approval and ancillary documentation
Highways England’s A27 Arundel Bypass Project Team kindly answered an FoI reference request 765736-1304ffc through What Do They Know on 14th July 2021. The appropriate Value for Money Statement, VfM Notification, and DfT response were provided. Some supporting documents were mentioned but were not included and may shed light on a BCR computational error and on consequential VfM judgements.
The relevant supporting or relevant documents that are now requested are:
1. Analytical Assurance Statement
2. Value for Money Assessment
3. Stage 2 Outline Business Case
4. Indicative Money Valuations for Landscape Impacts (for all options)
5. Notification of PR Ministerial Briefing dated 6th August 2020
6. Notes of DfT / HE meeting held 21st September 2021
Also
7. Copies of all HE / DfT correspondence in respect of the size and scope of the Worthing Lancing scheme, and in respect of its objectives, including in respect of its continuance in RIS 2, from 1st Jan 2018 to 31st December 2020
8. In agreeing with the Committee of Public Accounts, the Treasury said in 2019 that “HE continues to develop guidance on how to treat commitments to a whole programme of interacting projects, while individual projects within that programme remain uncertain and potentially unfunded. The target date for this approach to be clearly defined is March 2020.”. Please supply correspondence agreeing to put back the date for producing this clearly defined approach, or in the alternative supply correspondence confirming it has been defined to PAC or Treasury satisfaction together with the defined approach that was thereby approved.
Yours faithfully,
Edmund Cuss
This is an automated response:
Thank you for your email to Highways England.
If you’re reporting a real time issue which requires immediate attention
please call the Customer Contact Centre on 0300 123 5000.
A map of the roads for which we are responsible can be found here
[1]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk....
If the road you’re interested in isn’t on this map it will fall under the
jurisdiction of the local authority. You can find details of local
authorities using the search facility on the gov.uk website at:
[2]https://www.gov.uk/find-your-local-council
If your email does relate to an issue on Highways England's network it
will be passed to the relevant team within Highways England and they will
respond to you within a maximum of 10 working days.
For more information on how we use your data please check our privacy
notice at: [3]https://www.highwaysengland.co.uk/privacy
If you’ve made a request under the Freedom of Information Act we will
respond to you within a maximum of 20 working days. Your request will be
dealt with in line with government guidelines:
[4]https://www.gov.uk/make-a-freedom-of-inf...
Please be advised that emails may be monitored for training and quality
assurance purposes.
Kind regards
Highways England Customer Contact Centre
This email may contain information which is confidential and is intended
only for use of the recipient/s named above. If you are not an intended
recipient, you are hereby notified that any copying, distribution,
disclosure, reliance upon or other use of the contents of this email is
strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please
notify the sender and destroy it.
Highways England Company Limited | General enquiries: 0300 123 5000
|National Traffic Operations Centre, 3 Ridgeway, Quinton Business Park,
Birmingham B32 1AF |
[5]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati... |
[6][Highways England request email]
Registered in England and Wales no 9346363 | Registered Office: Bridge
House, 1 Walnut Tree Close, Guildford, Surrey GU1 4LZ
Consider the environment. Please don't print this e-mail unless you really
need to.
References
Visible links
1. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/asset...
2. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.g...
3. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.h...
4. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.g...
5. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
6. file:///tmp/[Highways England request email]
Dear Mr Cuss
Please find attached, our response to EIR 102337
Kind regards
A27 Arundel Bypass Scheme
Highways England | Bridge House | 1 Walnut Tree Close | Guildford | Surrey
| GU1 4LZ
Web: [1]https://highwaysengland.co.uk/projects/a...
[2]Highways England
This email may contain information which is confidential and is intended
only for use of the recipient/s named above. If you are not an intended
recipient, you are hereby notified that any copying, distribution,
disclosure, reliance upon or other use of the contents of this email is
strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please
notify the sender and destroy it.
Highways England Company Limited | General enquiries: 0300 123 5000
|National Traffic Operations Centre, 3 Ridgeway, Quinton Business Park,
Birmingham B32 1AF |
[3]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati... |
[4][email address]
Registered in England and Wales no 9346363 | Registered Office: Bridge
House, 1 Walnut Tree Close, Guildford, Surrey GU1 4LZ
Consider the environment. Please don't print this e-mail unless you really
need to.
References
Visible links
1. https://highwaysengland.co.uk/projects/a...
2. http://highwaysengland.co.uk/
3. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
4. file:///tmp/[email address]
Dear M Davis-Bawn,
A27 Arundel Bypass Project Team EIR reference 102337
Your letter of 26th August, reference number 102337 under EIR, in reply to mine of 28th July quoted EIR 12(4)(c) - requests formulated in too general a manner.
On the 16th June 2021 I had asked for the A27 Arundel bypass PRA formal application to DfT and the DfT approval, both accompanied by relevant supporting paperwork and with any Value for Money Statement or equivalent. HE answered, reference 102207, supplying the relevant DfT response and the VFM Written Statement dated Sept 2020 and a VFM Notification to DfT dated 14th September 2020. However, HE did not include some relevant supporting paperwork and therefore I needed to ask again, and did so on 28th July.
The VFM Notification that HE had supplied under 102207, in its penultimate paragraph, refers to the Analytical Assurance Statements, and the VfM assessment, and the stage 2 Outline Business Case; these are items 1, 2, and 3 that I requested on 28th July. Item 4 requested is referenced in paragraph 4 of the VFM Statement. Item 5 requested is referenced in the VFM Notification in its opening paragraph’s only sentence. Item 6 is expected to result from a meeting, scheduled and referred to in the final sentence of the VFM Notification. Items 1 to 5 therefore used the definitions that HE used to DfT in September 2020 and which I therefore consider to be adequate identifiers. Item 6 presumes that notes were kept of the meeting, but incorrectly suggested by me as held on 21st September 2021 when it was in fact to be held on 21st September 2020.
In respect of items 7 and 8, if these are insufficiently precise in their wording, please disregard them both, given the difficulties you are encountering in pinning them down. I will refresh these two requests separately at a later date if necessary.
I hope this clarifies and identifies the outstanding six items that I had asked for and now await. My thanks.
Yours sincerely,
Ed Cuss
Dear Ed Cuss
We acknowledge receipt of your email to Highways England:
A27 Arundel Bypass Project
If you have submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) or the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR), your request
will be considered and you will receive our response within the statutory
timescale of 20 working days.
The reference number for your email is FOI/2360.
Should you have any further inquiries concerning this matter, please reply
to this email leaving the subject line unchanged.
Yours sincerely,
Highways England
Dear Mr Cuss
A27 Arundel Bypass - Preferred route supporting documentation
I am writing to advise you that the time-limit for responding to your
request for information which we received on 27 August 2021 needs to be
extended under Regulation 7 of the Environmental Information Regulations.
In the case of your request, I must extend the time limit by approximately
20 working days because the information requested is complex and
voluminous and it is impracticable to comply with the request, or make a
decision to refuse to do so, within the earlier period.
I hope to let you have a response by 22 October 2021.
If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please
remember to quote reference number EIR 2360 in any future communications.
If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request you may ask
for an internal review. Our internal review process is available at:
[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
If you require a print copy, please phone the Information Line on 0300 123
5000; or e-mail [2][email address]. 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
Yours sincerely
K Jackson
K. Jackson
Project Support Officer, A27 Arundel Bypass
[3][email address]
References
Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. mailto:[email address]
Dear Mr Cuss
A27 Arundel Bypass - Preferred route supporting documentation
Thank you for your information request dated 27 August 2021 regarding our
response to EIR reference 102337. We have dealt with your request under
the provisions of the Environmental Information Regulation 2004.
This is because the information requested concerns measures and activities
affecting or likely to affect elements of the environment or affect
factors such as noise, pollution discharges and other releases into the
environment.
You asked for copies of the following-
1. Analytical Assurance Statement
2. Value for Money Assessment
3. Stage 2 Outline Business Case
4. Indicative Money Valuations for Landscape Impacts (for all
options)
5. Notification of PR Ministerial Briefing dated 6th August 2020
6. Notes of DfT / HE meeting held 21st September 2021
All the requested information we hold, can be found in the attachments
listed below. Please note under Regulation 13 we have redacted all
personal data from the attached documents.
With regards to the Outline Business Case PCF Stage 2 some of the
information falls under the exception in regulation 12(5)(e)
[1]confidentiality of commercial or industrial information of the
Environmental Information Regulations 2004 because releasing this
information would likely impact us getting the best value for money, with
the public’s money. Therefore this information has also been redacted from
the A27 Arundel Bypass - Outline Business Case PCF Stage 2.
1. A27 Arundel Bypass - Outline Business Case PCF Stage 2 – Redacted
2. Landscape Monetisation Technical Note
3. Notification of PR Ministerial Briefing dated 6th August 2020
We do not hold any record of notes taken at a meeting between DfT and HE
dated 21 September 2021 and therefore, under Regulation 12 (4) (a), we
cannot provide this information.
If you are not satisfied with your response you may ask for an internal
review within 40 working days of receiving the response, by replying to
this email. Our internal review process is available at:
[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
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:
[3][email address]
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Please remember to quote reference number FOI/2360 in any future
communications about this response.
Kind regards
M Davis-Bawn
References
Visible links
1. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004...
2. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
3. mailto:[email address]
We work to defend the right to FOI for everyone
Help us protect your right to hold public authorities to account. Donate and support our work.
Donate Now