Fifth Delivery Plan: Introduction

Vision, Priorities, Outcomes and Policies

The Scottish Government published the National Transport Strategy in February 2020, setting out its vision for Scotland’s transport system over the following 20 years.

Our Vision

We will have a sustainable, inclusive and accessible transport system, helping deliver a healthier, fairer and more prosperous Scotland for communities, businesses and visitors.

Promotes equality

  • Will provide fair access to services we need
  • Will be easy to use for all
  • Will be affordable for all

Takes climate action

  • Will adapt to the effects of climate change
  • Will help deliver
  • our net-zero target
  • Will promote greener, cleaner choices

Helps our economy prosper

  • Will get us where we need to get to
  • Will be reliable, efficient and high quality
  • Will use beneficial innovation

Improves our health and wellbeing

  • Will be safe and secure for all
  • Will enable us to make healthy travel choices
  • Will help make our communities great places to live

Developed through collaboration with partners and stakeholder engagement in urban, rural and island communities, the Strategy’s vision for transport is underpinned by four priorities, each with three associated outcomes. The Strategy is the basis upon which we take decisions and evaluate the success of Scotland’s transport policies going forward.

A range of strategic policies were also developed to drive change and address the challenges to achieve the priorities and outcomes, and to deliver the vision. The policies are high-level statements of intent and are presented throughout the document under the outcomes.

This Delivery Plan sets out the range of actions the Scottish Government is currently developing for the next year to support the delivery of a sustainable, safe, inclusive, resilient transport system that meets the needs of individuals, businesses and visitors, and is accessible to all. Impact assessments for each action are carried out during the policy, project and programme development stage.

Monitoring

The Strategy has a Monitoring and Evaluation framework, which highlights headline and secondary indicators that we routinely monitor and report on. Baseline figures were published in 2022 and, in 2024, we published our Monitoring and Evaluation report which provided an update on the baseline position. We will continue to monitor the Strategy, producing three-yearly reports on progress. This year, we will also provide an update to the Scottish Parliament on the progress of the Strategy.

Over the past year, we have been working with Public Health Scotland to develop a suite of indicators that will measure transport poverty. These draw on many of the indicators already reported as part of our monitoring and evaluation and transport poverty will feature distinctly in future monitoring reports and progress reports.

There are also a number of annual statistical publications, such as Transport and Travel in Scotland, which include some of the Strategy’s monitoring and evaluation indicators as well as providing statistics on many other issues related to transport.

Financial Context

Alongside the 2026-27 Scottish Budget, the Scottish Government also published in January 2026:

  • The Scottish Spending Review, which outlines indicative spending plans for resources up to 2028-29 and capital up to 2029-30. This also includes Portfolio Efficiency and Reform Plans to deliver £1.5 billion of recurring efficiency savings by 2028-29. Chapter 9 of the Review focuses on transport.
  • The Draft Infrastructure Strategy, which outlines Scotland’s decade-long infrastructure ambitions and provides a framework for future spending reviews and budget decisions. The Strategy is currently open for consultation with the deadline for responses on 5 May 2026.
  • The Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline, which sets out the infrastructure projects and programmes the Scottish Government will fund over the next four financial years. This features a list of transport projects and programmes in delivery or development.

Engagement

A significant event over the past year was the Scottish Transport Summit in Glasgow in September 2025, bringing together almost 70 leaders from across the sector to discuss the economic value of transport in Scotland. The focus was on ensuring our transport system works to eradicate child poverty, grow our economy, tackle the climate emergency, and deliver a safe, sustainable, future-proofed transport system. Much of the discussion was on the Value of Transport report outlining how the sector is estimated to support just over 150,000 full time equivalent jobs, and just under £10 billion Gross Value Added (GVA). This represents between 6-7% of the total workforce and Scottish GVA. On this basis alone, decisions about transport have tremendous power to influence Scotland’s economy.

Our ongoing engagement with a range of organisations is key to our work. The Transport Equality Group, established in 2024, includes representation from BEMIS, Scottish Youth Parliament, Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland, Engender and Age Scotland. The group aims to address and advocate for equitable transport solutions that serve all members of our community. It focuses on identifying barriers to access for marginalised communities, discussing policies that prioritise inclusivity and diversity in transportation planning, and providing a platform for diverse dialogue and collaboration.

To support the Inclusive Economic Growth priority, we engage with a range of businesses and industry through the Transport Business Group. Transport matters are also featured at the bi-annual Convention of the South of Scotland and the Convention of the Highlands and Islands events, each attended by a variety of key regional partners.