Although Graham was so concise in his questions, we have still run out of time, so I will ask the two members concerned if we could submit those questions to the cabinet secretary in writing. I am afraid that we are now out of time for this evidence session.

I thank you and your officials, cabinet secretary. I think you have been here for nearly three hours of questioning—it has been quite a long session. Thank you for being here.

That concludes the public part of our meeting.

There seems to have been quite a lot of heat in the chamber this afternoon. Let us see whether I can add some light.

Presiding Officer, I am pleased to notify you and all other members of a new people’s panel that will start its work this weekend. The panel comprises 25 individuals who have been randomly selected, but who reflect the demographic balance of Scottish society. Over two intensive weekends, they will reflect on this question: how effective has the Scottish Government been in engaging the public on climate change and Scotland’s climate change targets?

The work of the panel advances no fewer than three strategic goals of the Scottish Parliament. The first is to make more use of tools of deliberative democracy such as people’s panels, as was recommended by the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee in its report “Embedding Public Participation in the Work of the Parliament”. The Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee is pleased to be a pioneer in that area.

Secondly, the panel promotes post-legislative scrutiny—in this case, of the provisions in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, which lie behind the question that the panel is considering. We all agree that we need to do more to hold to the light laws that the Parliament has made to see how well they are working. The panel’s work will do exactly that.

Thirdly, there is the Conveners Group agreement that tracking Scottish Government progress against net zero targets is a collective priority for committees in this session of Parliament. The panel’s work will contribute directly to that, and I expect that we will want to pay careful attention to what it tells us when the committee scrutinises the Scottish Government’s next climate change plan, sometime later this year.

This is new territory for us all, and one thing that I have learned is that a considerable amount of time is needed to prepare the ground for the panel before it even begins work. My thanks go to parliamentary staff for their endeavours so far—in particular, the participation and communities team. I also thank the distinguished members of the panel expert group, who are drawn from academia, business and the third sector and who have kindly given up their time to help us to ensure that the panellists get a broad and balanced selection of views, data and information on their deliberative journey.

I look forward to welcoming all the panellists in person to the Parliament this Friday. The committee really looks forward to reporting back to Parliament later in the year on the work and on what we have learned.

As we found out with the 400kV electricity line that went through it, there will be pressure in relation to the national park.

You mentioned the importance of sharing risk. On the AWPR and the Dalraddy to Kincraig sections of the A9 that I saw being built in the previous session of Parliament, there was huge risk to contractors, so many—as we know—dropped out and would not take part in the construction. Will the first test of whether the industry believes that Transport Scotland is really sharing the risk be when the first problem comes up on the A9 and there is a massive increase in cost, which is bound to happen on some sections?

Convener, may I ask a final brief question?

It would be brilliant. [Laughter.]

Yes, it is from the Edward committee. I have no land next to the A9.

Grahame, I want to go back to the comment that you made about statutory processes. There were issues with the Aberdeen western peripheral route. No prior work was done relating to some of the infrastructure adjacent to it and we had huge delays because gas pipelines and electricity lines were discovered.

I was a surveyor for 15 years, so I know that the compulsory purchase process is fairly straightforward. On the A9, the process is probably the easiest one in the world to do, because there are not many landowners along it until Dunkeld. Why is the statutory process holding up the project, despite there being few landowners and infrastructure assets running along the edge of the A9 that could be affected?

Looking at those schemes, I can see that the Dalraddy to Kincraig section, which may have opened on budget, was certainly not on time. It was opened on the right day and then closed for another three months. In addition, the contractor on the AWPR said that it ended up losing money because there were extra costs. Do you think that that put contractors off looking at the A9 again until you came up with this new contract?

Earlier, Roy made a comment about there being 300 landowners; that is over 80 miles of road on the A9. It is probably every compulsory purchase practitioner’s dream that there are so few, because that makes it relatively simple.

I will turn to the future, because I want to push on something that the convener mentioned, if I may. Alison Irvine, you suggested having a David Climie equivalent for the A9 work. The A9 project will cost £3.7 billion, according to Government figures. It could well increase—the cost is based on 2023 figures—by the time that it is finished in 2024. That is probably going to be closer to £4.5 billion. Are you going to have an overall supremo, making sure that all of that project works and that we get it done? I would say that, with its current staff, that is clearly outwith Transport Scotland’s ability.

In relation to that point, are the capacity issues that you have just identified the major consideration in delivery of the project by 2035, or do you believe that, notwithstanding those capacity issues, 2035 ought to be an achievable date?

Grahame Barn mentioned spawning, which relates to salmon. The A9 is next to the bottom part of the River Spey, and I have a wild salmon fishery on the river, so I have an interest in relation to salmon that is not particularly relevant, but I wanted to make that clear.