Humza Yousaf and Nicola Sturgeon could be hauled in front of a Holyrood committee over the government’s failure to dual the A9.
The SNP leader and his predecessor are among a number of key figures to be targeted by the Scottish Parliament’s Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee, which is currently probing the lack of work on the notorious trunk road.
Others asked for evidence include Keith Brown, Michael Matheson, Paul Wheelhouse and shamed ex-finance secretary Derek Mackay.
However, the committee says they have not yet issued a letter to the ex-MSP who resigned in 2020 for pestering a 16-year-old with text messages as they have been unable to confirm his contact details.
The committee is demanding to know what advice each of the SNP politicians received “on progress towards dualling.”
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The Scottish Government committed to widening around 80 miles of single-carriageway in 11 sections along the A9 by 2025 back in 2011.
However, only 11 miles in two sections have been dualled in the last 12 years.
In February, the then transport minister Jenny Gilruth told parliament that the ambition of dualling the road between Perth and Inverness by 2025 had become “simply unachievable”.
Last month, the First Minister admitted it would not be completed before the next Holyrood election in May 2026.
The Government is due to update parliament on the overall timescale later this year.
In October the Committee took evidence from Alex Neil, in his capacity as the former Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment, during which he said a detailed plan for the completion of the dualling work was prepared by Transport Scotland officials in 2012.
MSPs on the Committee have now requested a copy of this plan.
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Jackson Carlaw, the Conservative MSP who chairs the committee said: “Following the evidence from Alex Neil, we’ve already heard that finishing the A9 dualling project 25 years late is 'unacceptable' and it’s clear that lessons need to be learned.
“This is important, not only to support completion of the A9 at the earliest possible date but also to understand what went wrong and how mistakes can be avoided in the future.
“The Committee have now requested the relevant documentation from the Scottish Government setting out what advice was provided by Transport Scotland to Ministers in 2012 regarding the project.
“In addition to this, we’ve invited subsequent ministers who held responsibility for A9 Dualling, including Humza Yousaf and Nicola Sturgeon to provide written evidence, following which we may invite them to appear in front of the Committee if deemed necessary.
“In the meantime, we eagerly anticipate the Cabinet Secretary’s promised update on the A9 Dualling Project to Parliament in the near future.”
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