A9 Dualling Programme updates: EIR release

Information requested

In her address to a public meeting on 18 July 2023 organised by the Inverness Courier entitled 'A9 Crisis Summit', Mairi McAllan MSP, who at the time was the Cabinet Secretary responsible for Transport, described the dualling of the A9 as "the single largest and most complicated transport engineering project in Scotland’s history".

Please provide the information which the Cabinet Secretary drew upon to make that claim.

You confirmed on 2 July 2024 that the period of time of your request is from March 2023 (date Màiri McAllan MSP was in post as Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition) to 18 July 2023, date of the A9 Crisis Summit.

Response

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.

Response:

Please find attached extract of briefing provided to then Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition, Màiri McAllan for her appearance at the “A9 Crisis Summit” hosted by Inverness Courier. We have extracted information relating to the quote referenced in your question.

It may also be helpful to note that correspondence and extracts of briefings from March to 18 July 2023, from Transport Scotland to then Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition, Màiri McAllan are publicly available and were released under Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004, reference 202300385118. This information can be accessed online via the Scottish Government’s website at:

A9 dualling project meeting and correspondence: EIR release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format.
Further details on the A9 Dualling Programme can be found on our dedicated Dualling website:

Latest A9 Ongoing Updates - A9 Dualling

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

EIR 202400421235 - Information Released - Annex

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