Chamber and committees

Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee

Inquiry into A9 Dualling Project

Background

In February 2023, the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee began considering a petition which calls on the Scottish Government to fulfil its 2011 promise to dual the A9 between Perth and Inverness, improve road safety on this road, and consider the creation of a national memorial to those who have tragically lost their lives on the road.

Full details are available on the petition webpage:

PE1992: Dual the A9 and improve road safety

The subject of this petition falls within the remit of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee. They were invited to nominate a reporter to attend and contribute to consideration of PE1992. The Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee nominated its Convener, Edward Mountain MSP, to this role.

You can find out more about the Committee’s initial consideration of the petition here:

CPPPC consideration of petition PE1992: Dual the A9 and improve road safety

Having gathered initial views on the issues raised by this petition, the Committee agreed to elevate its scrutiny to the level of an inquiry.

Public consultation

A call for views on methods for dualling the A9, road safety measures, and the proposal for a national memorial, ran from 9 August to 15 September 2023.

Read the responses

Additional responses were also received from:

Transform Scotland (196KB, pdf) posted 26 September 2023

Chris Miller (95KB, pdf) posted 26 September 2023

Killiecrankie, Fincastle and Tummel Community Council (194KB, pdf) posted 29 September 2023

John Mason MSP (142KB, pdf) posted 29 September 2023

Timeline

22 February 2023

At the first consideration of petition PE1992: Dual the A9 and improve road safety, the Committee agreed to gather written and oral evidence from a range of stakeholders, including the Petitioner, the Minister for Transport, community councils and the transport and engineering industry.

14 June 2023

The Committee heard evidence from the Petitioner. the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) Scotland, and Transport Scotland.

Read the Official Report of the meeting.

6 September 2023

The Committee agreed to elevate its scrutiny of petition PE1992 to the level of an inquiry.

4 October 2023

The Committee heard evidence from Alex Neil, former Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment.

Read the Official Report of the meeting.

25 October 2023

The Committee considered its approach to the inquiry, and agreed to write to the Scottish Government to request copies of the advice provided to Ministers on progress to dual the A9 between 2012 and 2023.

The Committee also agreed to invite written evidence from former Cabinet Secretaries and Ministers who held portfolio responsibility for infrastructure and transport between 2012 and 2023.

Read the Official Report of the meeting.

24 January 2024

The Committee heard evidence from CECA Scotland, and current and former senior officials at Transport Scotland

Read the Official Report of the meeting.

7 February 2024

The Committee heard evidence from Màiri McAllan, Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition, and senior officials from Transport Scotland.

Read the Official Report of the meeting.

21 February

The Committee considered the evidence it has gathered and agreed to write to CECA Scotland, and to invite Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, as former First Ministers, to give evidence at a future meeting.

Read the minutes of the meeting

Written Evidence

Transport Scotland have provided the following material to the Committee:

Context and Timeline document (294KB, pdf) posted 21 December 2023

A9 Dualling 2025 Delivery Strategy Update of May 2012 (448KB, pdf) posted 12 December 2023

The Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) has produced a summary of the documents received from Transport Scotland. Read the summary at the following link:

SPICe Summary of Evidence (246KB, pdf) posted 13 December 2023