Foreword

Foreword

This is the tenth annual report for Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2020 since the Framework was published in 2009.

This is a welcomed opportunity for me to highlight the progress of the Scottish Government and its partner organisations who are carrying out great work on road safety. 2018 saw a concerted effort to continue to engage with the three Priority Focus Areas (PFA) determined in 2016 by the Road Safety Framework’s mid-term review. My principal message is that effective partnerships are at the very heart of how we can transform safety on our roads. This approach cuts across the central pillars of encouragement, education, enforcement and engineering – critical areas in further improving how we keep people safe on our roads in Scotland.

The Annual Report provides background information on the review and the governance structure of the Road Safety Framework. This is followed by a summary of the Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2017 (published on 24 October 2018) with casualty figures being the lowest since records began in 1950. Nevertheless, we understand that one death on our roads is one too many. Beyond that individual, remains family, friends and communities who are left devastated.

This report highlights the specific actions taken directly by the Scottish Government, the Framework’s governing bodies, partner organisations and local authorities undertaking activities/projects supported by the Road Safety Framework Fund in 2018. All activity is evidence based and, in the case of that funded by the Framework, externally evaluated to determine the extent of its impact on road safety.

The Annual Report concludes with a brief look at the future of road safety in Scotland. The Horizon Scanning section reviews what could merit further exploration, together with any potential influences on the next Framework document.

The statistics show we are heading in the right direction, but it is clear to me that there is still much to do.

Finally, I would like to offer my personal thanks to all our road safety partners striving to keep our roads safe. I very much look forward to continuing to work with you all as we move forward on our road safety journey to 2020 and beyond together. We must all continue to play our part – whether at national or local levels or as individual road users – to take responsibility for our own safety and that of others.

Michael Matheson MSP
Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity