Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 31 October 2023.
Murdo Fraser
Conservative
I thank the Minister for her response. She will be aware of the extreme delays of up to two and half hours or more on the A9 north of Dunkeld, which have been devastating for those using the road to travel to and from the Highlands; for those making local journeys in Perthshire, for example to take children to and from school or to go to work; and for the tourist economy, including events such as the Enchanted Forest.
SGN told me yesterday that it is making changes to mitigate the delays, but there is a high degree of scepticism locally as to whether that will be enough. The roads authority here is Transport Scotland, which is an agency of the Scottish Government. How confident is the minister that we will not see a repeat of the unacceptable events that we saw just last week?
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
