Supporting Information
An Accredited Official Statistics Publication for Scotland
These statistics are accredited official statistics. The Office for Statistics Regulation has independently reviewed and accredited these statistics as complying with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.
The statistics were accredited in March 2020 and details can be found on the Office for Statistics Regulation website here Statistics on Reported Road Casualties in Scotland – Office for Statistics Regulation (statisticsauthority.gov.uk)
Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.
Transport Scotland’s statistics are regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.
This publication presents detailed statistics about the circumstances of personal injury road collisions in Scotland that were reported by the police using the Stats 19 statistical returns.
Given their size and detail, the tables referred to throughout the text are published separately. These tables are available as excel files on the Reported Road Casualties publication page.
Each collision is classified according to the severity of the injury to the most seriously injured person involved in the collision. These statistics are used to inform public debate and support policy on road safety (through education and engineering programs).
This publication also includes statistics related to further analysis on specific road safety topics. For example:
- Valuation of road collisions and casualties: Table 9 presents estimates of the value of preventing reported road collisions in GB and Scotland, based on DfT analysis.
- Drink drive estimates: Table 22 presents estimates of the levels of collisions and casualties involving drivers and riders with illegal alcohol levels using Procurator Fiscal data.
Since 2023, Transport Scotland has used the term ‘collision’ rather than ‘accident’ in our Reported Road Casualties publications. This brings us in line with the terminology used by Police Scotland and the Department for Transport.
The status of the statistics
Most of the data used in this publication were extracted from Transport Scotland’s Road Collisions statistical database on the 16 October 2025. The statistics given here may differ slightly from those published elsewhere (e.g. provisional figures published in Key Reported Road Casualty Statistics in June) because they were extracted on a different date and wouldn’t incorporate any later changes (e.g. due to late returns or late corrections). Any late returns will be incorporated into the next available publication.
The information held in Transport Scotland’s Road Collision Statistics database was collected by the police following each collision, and subsequently reported to Transport Scotland. Transport Scotland’s statistics may differ slightly from the local authorities as changes or corrections that local authorities may have made, for use at local level, to their own data may not always be accounted for in the central Transport Scotland database.
In mid-2019, Police Scotland started to use a new collision recording system. The introduction of this new system has changed the way casualty severity is recorded, making direct comparisons difficult. For the years 2004 to 2019, this publication uses figures for slight casualties, slight collisions, serious casualties, and serious collisions that have been adjusted in order to maximise comparability with figures for the most recent years. This does mean that the figures for serious and slight collision and casualties are not comparable prior to 2004. More information is set out in the following section.
Changes in severity reporting and 'adjustments' to figures
In the summer of 2019, Police Scotland started using CRASH (Collision Reporting and Sharing), an injury-based reporting system, for recording the data that feeds this publication. Before the introduction of CRASH, police officers would use their own judgement, based on official guidance, to determine the severity of the casualty (either 'slight' or 'serious'). CRASH is an injury-based recording system where the officer records the most severe injury for the casualty. The system then automatically converts the injuries to a severity level from 'slight' to 'serious'.
Since CRASH removes the uncertainty that arises from officers having to assess the severity of casualties based on their own judgement, severity information collected in this way is expected to be more accurate and consistent. However, the move to an injury-based reporting system tends to result in more casualties being classified as 'serious', which means that the number of serious and slight casualties are not comparable with earlier years.
The Department for Transport has carried out analysis which adjusts historical figures so that they reflect the numbers that would have been reported if CRASH had been used to record the casualty severity in those years. Within this publication, these adjusted figures are used to report on serious casualties, serious collisions, slight casualties, and slight collision for the years 2004 to 2019. This means that the adjusted figures for 2004 to 2019 are comparable with figures for 2020 onwards, but not with figures for years prior to 2004.
As the adjustments relate only to serious and slight casualties, figures for total casualties and fatalities are unaffected
More information on the methodology used to produce these adjusted figures is available from the Department for Transport.
Revisions to fatality figures for 2019-2023
Introduction
The figures within our reported road casualties publications are routinely subject to change as late records or late corrections are incorporated.
The figures for fatalities published in June’s Key Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2024 incorporated more significant revisions than usual.
These revisions were the result of a review process undertaken by Police Scotland and Transport Scotland to reconcile figures reported in official statistics publications with those used internally within Police Scotland and with operational partners to monitor fatalities on a weekly basis.
These revisions have carried forward into this release, with continued quality assurance of the road casualty data resulting in further slight revisions to the figures.
Background
Information on injury road collisions and the resultant casualties are collected by Police Scotland, in part, for the purposes of inclusion in official statistics. The information collected for official statistics is known as the Stats19 data collection and is recorded on a system owned by the Department for Transport known as CRASH. Police Scotland follow standardised, GB-wide guidelines setting out the types of collisions and casualties that should be included in the Stats19 data collection and the range of information that should be collected for these collisions.
Police Scotland also have their own separate administrative processes for tracking and managing road casualties. This includes maintaining a near real-time log of road fatalities, which is updated and shared with operational partners on a weekly basis.
Over winter 24/25 it became apparent that the number of fatalities recorded within Police Scotland’s operational monitoring log for calendar year 2023 was lower than the figure reported within Transport Scotland’s official statistics publication.
Review exercise
In response to this difference, Police Scotland and Transport Scotland have undertaken an exercise to understand the differences between the number of fatalities recorded for Stats19 purposes and the number of fatalities being recorded within the fatalities log used for operational monitoring.
This process involved reviewing each fatal collision present on either the Stats19 dataset or the fatalities log, and consulting with the original Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) to confirm the details of the collision. This exercise was conducted for each fatal collision which occurred from Police Scotland’s introduction of CRASH onwards (mid 2019).
The review process highlighted a number of expected differences between the two sets of figures. There are explicit guidelines for what constitutes a fatality for the purposes of the Stats19 data collection, and this may be different from a more general definition of a road fatality. For example, stats19 excludes fatalities from collisions that do not take place on the public road network (e.g. within car parks) and excludes fatalities that die more than 30 days after the collision. Both these types of fatality might reasonably be included in the operational fatality log, which takes a broader definition of a road fatality.
The process also showed differences between the two sets of figures relating to fatalities which were initially recorded as being the result of a road collision, but were then subsequently identified as being to the result of a medical episode or suicide. These types of fatalities should not be included within Stats19 dataset, but a number were.
Typically, SIOs within Police Scotland add fatalities to CRASH on the day of the collision or shortly thereafter. This provides the benefit of prompt completion on the basis of contemporary information. Subsequent investigation may reveal that a road collision fatality was the result of a medical episode or suicide. The final confirmation that a fatality is in one of the above categories may be received some time after the collision.
As one of a number of administrative steps surrounding the collision. This requires SIOs to edit the Stats19 records with this updated information. In a number of cases, the Stats19 data was not updated on the CRASH system with this information, whilst the log that forms the basis for the weekly fatality monitoring was. This formed the major source of difference between the two sets of figures.
When the review exercise was undertaken ahead of Key Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2024, a small number of collisions identified as being the result of physical assault were removed. Within the terms of Stats19, collisions resulting from deliberate acts of violence against others should be included. Therefore, ahead of the publication of these finalised statistics, fatalities as a result of physical assault which were previously removed have been re-introduced into the data.
Results of the review
The figures within this publication have been updated in line with the information established during the review process. This includes the re-introduction of fatalities which were the result of physical assault, as well as further revisions identified through continued quality assurance between the publication of the provisional and finalised figures.
The latest updates have not altered the overall impact of the previous revisions carried out for ‘Key Reported Road Casualties 2024’, which served to lower the number of fatalities and fatal collisions recorded for the years 2019 to 2023.
The changes in the number of fatalities and fatal collisions for individual years are set out in Table 3 and Table 4 below. These compare the revised to those published in our most recent previous publication, ‘Key Reported Road Casualties 2024’. A comparison between the figures in ‘Key Reported Road Casualties 2024’ and ‘Reported Road Casualties 2023’ is also included to show the impact of the initial revisions.
| Version of figures | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Previously published Reported Road Casualties (RRC) 2023 figures | 164 | 141 | 139 | 171 | 155 |
| Revised Key Reported Road Casualties (KRRC) 2024 figures | 163 | 133 | 127 | 164 | 147 |
| Further revised Reported Road Casualties (RRC) 2024 figures | 163 | 133 | 128 | 165 | 143 |
| Difference between RRC 2024 and RRC 2023 | -1 | -8 | -11 | -6 | -12 |
| Version of figures | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Previously published Reported Road Casualties (RRC) 2023 figures | 157 | 131 | 134 | 151 | 151 |
| Revised Key Reported Road Casualties (KRRC) 2024 figures | 156 | 123 | 122 | 143 | 143 |
| Further revised Reported Road Casualties (RRC) 2024 figures | 156 | 123 | 123 | 144 | 139 |
| Difference between RRC 2024 and RRC 2023 | -1 | -8 | -11 | -7 | -12 |
As fatalities and fatal collisions are included within measures of total casualties/collisions and ‘fatal and serious’ casualties/collisions, these figures have seen corresponding changes.
Figure A shows the revised findings for fatalities for 2019 onwards in the context of the longer term trend, as well as those published within the publication prior to the review and revisions, ‘Reported Road Casualties 2023’. The overall pattern in fatalities for recent years is similar for both previously published figures and revised figures: there was a reduction to all-time lows during the pandemic years, a rise in 2022, before a reduction in 2023.
Process improvements
In response to the results of this review process, Police Scotland and Transport Scotland are introducing a number of additional steps to ensure the continued accuracy of the figures.
These steps include:
- Highlighting and explaining the issues identified through the review process at the annual conference for Police Scotland’s Senior Investigating Officers (SIOs).
- Providing additional guidance to officers on correct recording of medical and suicide incidents on CRASH.
- Ensuring that updates from the Procurator Fiscal regarding contentious fatalities are sent to a central Road Policing staff member as well as individual SIOs, to allow for additional checks that CRASH has been correctly updated.
- Introducing additional checks within Police Scotland for completion memos (the document that signifies that a collision investigation is complete, including the updating of relevant CRASH records).
- Introducing an additional check between Police Scotland’s Road Policing team and Transport Scotland prior the finalisation of each set of official statistics.
The years covered in the tables
Some tables present a time series so that any trends can be identified. However, more detailed tables provide figures in the form of 5-year annual averages (e.g. 2020-2024), and do not present figures for the latest single year. This smooths out levels of variation often present with low numbers of collisions and casualties. If readers require versions of the detailed tables for single years, these can be provided on request.
Road casualty reduction targets
In many of the tables, the latest figures are compared with the annual averages for the period 2014-18. This is to allow comparison against the baseline period for the Scotland’s 2030 casualty reduction targets published within the Road Safety Framework to 2030.
This publication discusses these targets in more detail, monitoring progress and exploring differences between modes of travel. Due to the changes in casualty severity recording, progress against some of the targets is measured using the adjusted figures produced by the Department for Transport, which show what historical figures would have looked like if the CRASH system had been used previously.
Estimates of the total volume of road traffic
Some tables include estimates of traffic volumes, or collision or casualty rates calculated from them. The traffic estimates were provided by the Department for Transport (DfT), which produces estimates of the total volume of road traffic for Scotland and for other parts of Great Britain. Care should be taken when using these estimates and a detailed description can be found in Appendix C of this publication.
Review of Stats 19
National & local government police forces across Great Britain work closely to achieve an agreed standard for the system for collecting & processing statistics on road collisions involving personal injury. The statistics are subject to regular reviews as part of the continued drive to improve quality and meet user needs whilst minimising the burden of collection.
The most recent STATS19 review started in autumn 2018 and has made a number of recommendations on changes to STATS19 going forward. These were based on evidence and detailed discussion with the review group.
Following this review, the changes to the data collection that were anticipated to effect in calendar year 2024.
In practice, these changes were implemented on the collision recording system used by Police Scotland in November 2023, meaning that collisions entered after this date were entered using the new format of the 19 data collection.
Key recommendations can be found in the full STATS19 review report.
For further information please contact: STATS19REVIEW@dft.gov.uk
Office for Statistics Regulation compliance check
In 2019 and 2020, these statistics were assessed against the Code of Practice for Official Statistics by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). The outcome of the review was that these statistics should continue to be classified as National Statistics (now referred to as Accredited Official Statistics. More information about the findings of the review is available on the OSR website.
Further details on the role of the UKSA and the assessment process can also be found via the OSR website.
Other Scottish Transport Statistics
Reported Road Casualties Scotland is one of a series of Transport Statistics publications. Details of other Transport Scotland statistics can be found.
Key articles from previous editions of Reported Road Casualties Scotland (RRCS)
- Estimating under-counting of Road Casualties in Scotland (RRCS 2010)
- Priorities in Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2020- An assessment of relative levels and trends (RRCS 2011)
- Comparison of police casualty statistics with other sources (RRCS 2011)
- Vulnerable road users (RRCS 2014)
- In Focus: Pedal and motorcycle casualties (RRCS 2013)
- Road User Factsheet (RRCS 2017)
- Casualty rates for local authority roads by local authority area, and the likely range of random year-to-year variation in these figures (RRCS 2018)
We welcome suggestions for improving the usefulness of the data and the publications. Comments and enquiries should be sent to the address below.
Andrew Paterson
Statistician
Transport Statistics
Transport Scotland
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh EH6 6QQ
Email: Transtat@transport.gov.scot
Note for Figure 1: Due to changes in the way casualty severities are recorded, figures for serious collisions prior to 2004 are not comparable with later years.