Cost benefit analysis for preferred option for A96: EIR release

"Full and complete details of the cost benefit analysis for the preferred option for the A96; all data used with sources, how this data was inputted with any assumptions made, all calculations with working etc, ie the complete final document plus all preliminary workings."

In your email of 18 July you clarified that your request related to the A96 Dualling Strategic Business Case. As I confirmed in my email of 19 July a cost benefit analysis of the options under consideration for the A96 Dualling Hardmuir to Fochabers scheme will be presented in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) Stage 2 Route Options Assessment Report once the Stage 2 assessment process has been completed, currently expected later this year.

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.