A9 from Thurso to Inverness maintenance costs: FOI release

Information requested

“How much has been spent on maintenance in the past 3 years on the A9 from Thurso to Inverness?

How much has been spent on maintenance on the Shetland islands in the last 3 years?”

Response

It may be helpful to note that Transport Scotland has contracts in place with Operating Companies to ensure Scottish trunk roads are safe, efficient and well managed.

The North West section of trunk road network is managed and maintained by BEAR Scotland on behalf of Transport Scotland and covers some 1,422km of trunk road. This unit covers a vast area of Scotland, from Thurso and Wick in the very north of the Highlands down to Campbeltown in Argyll and Bute, from Uig on Skye to Perth and Stirling in the central belt.

The North East section of the trunk road network is managed and maintained by Amey on behalf of Transport Scotland and covers 593km of trunk road. This unit covers some of Scotland's major cities including Perth, Dundee and Aberdeen, across nine different Scottish North East regions.

The A9 Trunk Road runs through both the North East unit (from Dunblane to Perth) and the North West unit (from Perth to Scrabster). Please see the following details for maintenance spend on the A9 Trunk Road for the last three financial years, split by unit.

	2022/2023	2023/2024	*2024/2025
North East – A9	4,031,899	6,058,856	6,430,120
North West – A9	24,075,302	24,943,260	36,865,463

* Up to 31st March 2025 (The latest figures held)

Transport Scotland does not have some of the information you have asked for because we are unable to provide costs for specific sections of a trunk road. Therefore I’m unable to provide maintenance costs for the A9 between Thurso to Inverness.

We are also unable to provide you with maintenance costs for the roads on the Shetland Islands as maintenance responsibility falls to the Local Authority, in this case Shetland Islands Council. You may wish to request this information directly from them using the following weblink - Roads and Footpaths – Shetland Islands Council

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that Transport Scotland does not have the information you have requested.

This exemption is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

About FOI

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