A9 Dualling project apprenticeships: EIR release

FOI reference: FOI/18/00246
Date received: 29 January 2018
Date responded: 16 February 2018

Information requested

a) The number of apprenticeships delivered along the A9 Dualling project and b) the number of apprenticeships promised by contractors along the various stretches of the A9 Dualling.

Response

The information you have requested falls within the definition of 'environmental information' in regulation 2(1) of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (the EIRs), and so we are required to deal with it under those Regulations. An exemption under section 39(2) of FOISA applies to this information which, in effect, means we do not have to consider a request under FOISA if we are dealing with it under the EIRs. As the exemption is conditional we have applied the 'public interest test'. This means we have, in all the circumstances of this case, considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the exemption. It seems to us there is no public interest in dealing with this request under FOISA as well as the EIRs but there is a public interest in not duplicating work unnecessarily. Therefore, we have concluded that the public interest favours maintaining the exemption. This is largely a technical point – the fact that we are dealing with your request under the EIRs rather than FOISA has no practical impact on our decision in relation to your request.

Turning to each element of your request, please find below the relevant information:

The number of apprenticeships delivered along the A9 Dualling project.

To date a total of 31 apprenticeships have been delivered.

The number of apprenticeships promised by contractors along the various stretches of the A9 Dualling.

3 of the above total apprenticeships to date were required as part of the construction contract for the Kincraig to Dalraddy scheme. Additional apprenticeships are expected to be delivered during the construction of the remaining schemes that make up the A9 Dualling programme.

Also, one of the dualling engineering design consultants committed to recruiting two school leavers for formal technician apprentices each year during the office based design phase. This has happened in each year to date and all the school leavers have gone on to follow the apprentice route. It should be noted however that this was not a contract requirement.

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