Meeting of the Parliament 16 January 2025
I welcome the committee’s debate and its final inquiry report, and I thank all those who were involved in making it a reality, including the petitioner. The inquiry has proved that the Scottish Parliament is open to Scotland’s citizens and that public petitions can have an impact.
I will touch on some of the inquiry’s findings and the Scottish Government’s response to it. It should not be forgotten that at the heart of all this is the fact that the A9 continues to be a dangerous road, with many people sadly having lost their lives when travelling on it. Communities the length of the route, tourists and haulage vehicles use the road to get to where they need to go and to keep services and goods deliveries running across the country. Swift action to address the problems on the A9 has been needed for many years, and continuous delays are a failure of the Scottish Government.
I will highlight and elaborate on some of the inquiry’s findings. The report states that the 2025 target for dualling was missed not due to one single issue or incident but, instead, because of the Scottish Government’s
“failure to reach agreement on programme funding”.
That is thought to have
“significantly contributed to progress stalling as the programme was reaching the procurement and construction stages.”
That might have been remedied with
“an individual whose main or only focus was to progress the A9 dualling programme”.
With the rapid turnover of SNP transport secretaries in recent years, it is little wonder that that was raised as a concern, although I note that the Scottish Government disagrees with those points in its response.
I also note the finding that
“A lack of open, external discussion of the challenges being faced in the delivery of the A9 dualling programme has negatively impacted public confidence in Transport Scotland and its ability to deliver major infrastructure projects within the timescales it says it will”.
It is of great concern that confidence in a Government body such as Transport Scotland is being questioned. The Scottish Government has responded to the committee to say that Transport Scotland’s ability to deliver has not been negatively impacted. There seems to be a misreading of concerns about confidence in the body. Significant effort will need to be ploughed into addressing the public’s confidence in Transport Scotland, and I hope that the Scottish Government will take that on board. Particular attention needs to be paid to addressing confidence in Transport Scotland among communities in the north of Scotland, as projects in central and southern Scotland being completed before the completion of the A9 dualling has led to a confidence deficit in those northern communities, which was picked up by the inquiry.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats welcome the inquiry’s proposal of routine and regular sharing of information with the Parliament as a key way to address concerns about the transparency of decision making on major projects such as those on the A9. I welcome the Scottish Government’s agreement in principle to that.
If I may, I will remark on something that is slightly outside the inquiry. The A9 north of Inverness is also a critical road for the communities that it connects. I recognise that Transport Scotland’s work on safety issues covers the whole of the A9, and it is important that regular assessments are made, as we know that that section of road is vital in ensuring access to public services.
The importance of the A9 in connecting large parts of Scotland means that improving safety on the route should be a priority for the Scottish Government. Dualling the road will help with that, and a new report by the Scottish Government to accelerate that is welcome. I also note that the Government expects to complete work on the £5 million programme of additional measures to enhance safety on the route in advance of dualling by March this year. After so many deadlines being missed, that one needs to be met. Progress on the A9 needs to be realised swiftly for the safety of communities up and down Scotland that use the route.
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