To ask the First Minister, in light of reported figures that over 2,000 people were killed or seriously injured on Scotland’s roads last year, what the Scottish Government’s position is on whether 2024 could see the highest number of road accidents and fatalities on record. (S6F-03550)

I express my sympathies to everyone who has been affected by the loss of a loved one and to anyone who has been injured on our roads. The published finalised road casualty statistics for 2023 showed that the number of people killed on Scotland’s roads fell to 155. That is the fourth-lowest annual figure and the second-lowest figure recorded in a non-pandemic year.

However, the Cabinet Secretary for Transport has previously highlighted the significant road challenges that we face in 2024. Road safety remains a top priority for the Scottish Government, which is why we are investing £36 million this financial year in a broad range of initiatives that are aimed at improving driver behaviour and reducing road casualties.

I agree that one death on our roads is one death too many. Too many families have lost loved ones on Scotland’s roads. It is incumbent on us all to see that trajectory go down and not up this year or in future years. However, the reality of Scotland’s roads is that there is a £2.5 billion backlog of repairs. That does not include what is necessary to upgrade or improve some of the accident hotspots, such as the A9, A96 and A77.

Bearing in mind that 65 per cent of road deaths occur on rural roads, action is needed, and it is needed fast. Is the First Minister’s Government still fully committed to fully dualling every single road that it promised the public that it would dual in its manifestos? How many more lives will be needlessly lost while we wait for that to happen?

The Government remains committed to its investment programme. We will take the action to support road safety measures that I set out in my earlier answer. The transport secretary is actively involved in dealing with many of those questions, and she hosted a road safety summit in February this year to review all current road safety measures. That will remain a very focused part of the agenda that the transport secretary and the Government take forward.

On Tuesday this week, yet another person lost his life in an incident on the A9, and three more people had to be taken to hospital. The Road Safety Foundation has produced evidence that people are three times more likely to lose their lives in an incident on a single-carriageway road than on a dual-carriageway road, and are a staggering 10 times more likely to lose their lives on a single-track road as opposed to a motorway. That means that families in the Highlands in the north of Scotland are 10 times more likely than those in the central belt to lose somebody to a road death. Therefore, will the First Minister make proposals for the swifter dualling of the A9 so that fewer people die? Will he obtemper the promise that was made to the cross-party delegation of MSPs that I led and that met him in June, a full five months ago, when he said that he would give serious consideration to the matter?

I recognise the seriousness and significance of the issue. The incident to which Mr Ewing refers took place in my parliamentary constituency, just to the south of Ballinluig. The Government has already invested in dualling a number of stretches of the A9. When I was travelling on the A9 on Monday, I saw the beginnings of the work that is under way on the next stretch of the road to be dualled, which is the Moy to Tomatin stretch.

As I indicated to Parliament in June, the Government will keep the programme under review to identify whether there is any way that we can move at a faster rate. Officials are in the process of considering the implications of resequencing or accelerating completion of the A9 dualling programme. The Cabinet Secretary for Transport has asked that a report on the findings of that work be published when it is complete.

I take the opportunity to extend my sympathies to the family of the individual who lost their life on the A9 on Tuesday, and to all those who were affected by the incident.

This week is United Kingdom road safety week, which is organised by Brake. The Scottish Government road safety framework included a commitment to hold a Scottish road safety week each year. The first took place in March 2022, but there has not been another one. Has that commitment been dropped?

The Scottish Government also committed to raising a national conversation on road safety in 2022. When can we expect to see any progress on that, given that Transport Scotland says that it receives no resources to deliver either of those initiatives?

The Government works closely with Brake to provide support to victims of road crashes. Officials last met the organisation earlier this month, on 1 November. In addition, the Government hosted a road safety summit in February 2024 to review all current road safety measures and to help to identify new strategies to support action towards our 2030 casualty reduction targets.

We will work constructively with different organisations that represent victims of road traffic incidents to ensure that they are well supported in addressing the points that Claire Baker puts to me.