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FERGUS EWING: Candour is in short supply at Holyrood





Fergus Ewing with Laura Hansler at the A9 summit held by Strathy owners Highland News & Media and attended by then Transport Minister Mairi McAllan.
Fergus Ewing with Laura Hansler at the A9 summit held by Strathy owners Highland News & Media and attended by then Transport Minister Mairi McAllan.

The word ‘parliament’ derives from the French ‘parler’ to speak with people.

One innnovation of the Holyrood Parliament was the Petitions Committee which allows any citizen to bring his or her ‘ask’ to Parliament. It lets the people speak.

Laura Hansler, of this parish, brought her petition to dual the A9 to the committee.

At the start, the committee heard her eloquent call to arms for completing the work swiftly and voicing the frustrations of so many people in the North.

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We then heard from Grahame Barn, head of the Civil Engineers Contractors Association.

It then became clear that the subject matter merited a full inquiry, and we agreed to hold one, calling former ministers and Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond.

Now the committee has issued its report as reported by the Strathy.

We agreed amongst the committee members to find out as the remit of the inquiry both what went wrong but also how to put things right.

Diagnosis and prognosis as it were.

We found in our conclusions, that after about 2016 in particular there was:

• a lack of drive with no-one person in Government driving the project forward;

• a failure to agree how the work would be funded - whether using capital budget of nearly £5 billion a year - more than enough to do the job - or use private finance methods.

Even before the committee filed its report ,Transport Scotland, described by Mr Barn, speaking for his industry, as ‘the worst client in Britain’ - was forced to change its contract terms and conditions which themselves had become a hindrance to getting competitive bids.

The committee also recommends that the Scottish Government should in future apply a new ‘duty of candour’ - basically tell the truth and the whole truth about the project.

We added that to improve the scrutiny there should be a dedicated parliamentary committee set up which would oversee the project.

This proposal I made some time ago to the then Transport Minister who blithely rejected it out of hand.

Last week in Holyrood the First Minister John Swinney sidestepped the question of whether he agreed to such a committee by saying it is up to Parliament.

Technically correct but surely he should welcome this?

Lastly the committee urged the Scottish Government to consider completing the dualling project more swiftly than the proposed revised deadline of 2035.

I had urged the First Minister to do this when I led an all party group of MSPs (except the Greens) meeting him in June. I have heard nothing since and am pressing hard on this now.

There has never been a full parliamentary debate in 25 years of Holyrood on the A9 and that is a disgrace.

Now I expect that there will be a full debate on the committee’s report.

It has been a positive solid piece of work where the main parties, without falling out about political differences, have united behind the need to complete the job and do so as quickly as reasonably possible.

To do so will without question see fewer people lose their lives in tragic incidents on the road.

As we know, each case of loss of life is a tragedy for the family of loved ones and surely one cannot put a price on human life?

I am confident that the Government will listen, not least because on the committee there was complete unanimity.

If it comes to a choice between standing up for my constituents, or defending the Scottish Government’s record of continuous delay and secrecy, I will have no hesitation in speaking out and voting for the people who have entrusted me with the position of their voice in Holyrood.

It’s a no brainer. Watch this space.

Fergus Ewing (SNP) is MSP for Strathspey.


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