Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Scotland's Road Safety Framework to 2030, published in February 2021, sets out a vision for Scotland to have the best road safety performance in the world by 2030 and an ambitious long term goal, Vision Zero, where no one is seriously injured or killed on our roads by 2050.
This first annual report of the new framework provides a welcomed opportunity to highlight the progress made by the Scottish Government and its partner organisations in putting road safety in the right footing for the next ten years. However, it must be emphasised that all road users have a part to play in the success of the framework by keeping the roads safe for themselves and others.
Our framework introduces a comprehensive performance management system which will help us gain a much clearer understanding of the different issues influencing overall safety performance and monitors delivery of the framework more effectively. It embeds the Safe System approach at a national, regional, local and even individual level. It requires political leadership, strategic clarity and decisive action, as well as ownership by all of us to increase the pace of change to make our roads safer.
We have been working to develop a Safe System training framework for decision makers, designers, engineers, planners and practitioners to name a few to help establish and embed Safe Systems in how Scotland designs, maintains and operates its various transport modes. We will be rolling this out during 2023 with a view to developing a Safe System implementation manual shortly afterwards. Three Local Partnership Forums have also been set up to complement the existing framework's governance in order to improve communications between national and local levels.
Road casualties over the past couple of years have shown a steady decrease, with 2021 casualty figures being the lowest since records began in 1950. However, these numbers will have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated impacts on travel.
During 2021/22, a number of road safety initiatives were funded by the Road Safety Framework and Evaluation Fund, with their activities being evidence-based and externally evaluated to determine the extent of their impacts on road safety.
Within this annual report, we provide an update on progress on the 60 deliverables contained in the framework's first annual Delivery Plan 2021/22.
Finally, we would like to offer a personal thanks to all road safety partners and very much look forward to working with you all throughout the lifetime of the framework, as we all have a part to play, whether at a national, local or individual level, to make Scotland's roads safer.