Road Works and the Transport (Scotland) Bill
We want to raise the standard, and improve the quality, of road works in Scotland, and provide the Scottish Road Works Commissioner (SWRC) with better options to deal with poor performance.
The Transport (Scotland) Bill will help create a regulatory environment which encourages the approach of getting road work reinstatements right first time, provides better information about road works, and helps to ensure a consistent approach to safety at road works sites regardless of who is carrying them out.
Key provisions include:
- Clarification on the legal status of the Scottish Road Works Commissioner
- Compliance notices with enforcement consequences for those who fail to take the required steps
- Non-compliance with a Compliance Notice will be an offence, which will mean that the SRWC will become a specialist reporting agency, and be able to submit reports to the Procurator Fiscal
- An inspection function for the Scottish Road Works Commissioner with associated enforcement powers and new offences including for obstruction
- A requirement for reinstatement quality plans (to establish that organisation have the necessary processes and competence to execute road works to the required standards)
- Requirements to notify actual starts and works closed within specified timescales to improve the accuracy of information relating to road works on the Scottish Road Works Register
- A requirement to place details of all utility apparatus onto the Scottish Road Works Register
Want to learn more?
The provisions in the Bill help to implement some of the recommendations and observations set out in the Barton Report. The Scottish Government also ran its own consultation, Raising Standards and improving the Quality of Road Works in Scotland. Our analysis of the consultation responses is also available.
For more information see the Policy Memorandum on the Scottish Parliament website.