Overview
Overview
Introduction to the Road Safety Framework 2030
Transport Scotland, in conjunction with partners, developed and published a world leading Road Safety Framework to 2030 (RSF 2030) which was published in 2021 and sets out a compelling long-term goal for road safety, Vision Zero, where there are zero fatalities and injuries on Scotland's roads by 2050. The journey to achieving this goal also includes ambitious interim targets where the number of people being killed or seriously injured on our roads will be halved by 2030. The RSF 2030 is aligned with the National Transport Strategy and is integrated with a wide range of policies that assist those Government national outcomes and indicators. These include better road safety and health outcomes, promotion of active travel, climate change mitigation and place-making.
For the first time, mode- and user-specific targets for key priority groups such as pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and over-represented age groups have been created to focus attention by partners on our priority areas.
The RSF 2030 fully embeds the Safe System approach to road safety, an approach with people at its centre. This includes improved safety aspects of the road, its surrounding environment, vehicle technology and education for all road users.
It has five new strategic outcomes for road safety, built around the five pillars of the Safe System. These are supported by 12 strategic actions fully focused on addressing our current and emerging challenges. The actions are aligned with the Scottish Government national outcomes and indicators such as Climate Emergency and Active and Sustainable Travel. They also include Health, Education, Speed, Enforcement, Change in Attitudes & Behaviour, Engineering, Funding & Resourcing, Inequalities and Knowledge & Data Analysis.
Governance structure of the framework
The Strategic Partnership Board (SPB)
The SPB has strategic responsibility for the RSF 2030, working in partnership with Ministers and senior partner organisations. The SPB is responsible for making collective decisions on strategic approaches, budgetary spending approvals, identifying risks, resolving high level issues and the monitoring of the outcomes in the RSF 2030 delivery plans.
Activity:
Introduction of Key Priority Groups
To support the delivery of the challenging targets and intermediate outcome targets, the framework committed to establish Key Priority Groups covering the mode- or age-specific target. These groups will comprise of specialists and road users relevant to that area who will look at data to identify trends and measures that can be introduced to try prevent some of the existing or arising issues within that area. The information obtained from these groups can then be used to develop future strategies.
With the spike in motorcycle fatalities across the network in a period of 2021, members agreed that the first Key Priority Group to be established should be motorcycles, to have an in depth look at fatalities and what more can be done to prevent them. Its first meeting was attended by the Minister for Transport and key partners. The group set out a strategy to conduct deep dive investigations, looking at various aspects including engineering, education, enforcement and marketing.
The Operational Partnership Group (OPG)
The OPG has senior official representation from a variety of organisations with a remit for, or vested interest in, road safety. It has responsibility for the monitoring, analysis and distillation of evidence and information on activities being undertaken by partners towards the delivery of the RSF 2030 and the agreed deliverables outlined in its delivery plan.
The OPG also monitors progress against the road casualty reduction targets as set out in the RSF 2030, raising any issues, risks and recommendations to the SPB for consideration.
Members agreed to introduce core and affiliated members to the group. Affiliated members will not be required to attend all meetings, and they will be invited along to meetings at points when the focus is on their portfolio and their expertise are required or they are wanting to share information wider.
Activity:
Framework and Evaluation Fund
The Road Safety Framework and Evaluation Fund is designed to promote and encourage further partnership working to help ensure the delivery of the framework.
The new RSF 2030 funding rounds will align with the Safe System, and the first call for funding focused on the Safe Road Use pillar. All activity is evidence-based and external evaluation is conducted to determine the extent of its impact on road safety.
An understanding of how road safety interventions function – both in terms of their effectiveness in delivering outputs, aims and objectives, and the eventual broader impacts on road safety – is essential to inform strategic decision-making and the allocation of resources. Without an understanding of what is working well, and where improvement is needed, it is not possible to systematically improve road safety.
The OPG scrutinised the road safety framework and evaluation fund applications received in 2021, with the SPB providing a strategic oversight. A total of eight bids were received with five of those being approved for funding by the groups.
Local Partnership Forums
In order to improve communications between national and local levels, the framework created a third tier in its governance structure – Local Partnership Forums (LPFs).
- Strategic Partnership Board
- Operational Partnership Group
- Local Partnership Forums
The LPFs have been established in line with Police Scotland's area command of North, West and East, which will give the capability of sharing messages and working consistently across the whole of Scotland from a local level to a national one, which will be fundamental to the delivery of the framework going forward.
2021 saw the first meeting of the LPFs, which took place in November. Localised stats for each of the LPF areas were presented at the meetings, with a comparison made at a national level. Members share their activity, knowledge and best practices with the group which generates constructive partnership working. Meetings have remained positive, and this has already begun to generate new ideas on what would be beneficial at a local level. Receiving data and sharing knowledge between stakeholders, particularly at local level, is a great asset to have.
Road Safety Partnership Groups are already in place locally and are doing great work. It's great to see different organisations working together locally to tackle specific needs on the ground. The LPFs are in place to support these groups, allowing for local issues and successes/failures to be fed through the framework's governance.
Members of the LPFs include: local authorities, chairs of relevant road safety forums/groups, representatives from the emergency services, organisations that represent different user groups etc. LPFs are continuing to progress and adapt, and as the work progresses, their structure and remit will be refined.
All governance groups ensure the framework follows an evidence-based, collaborative approach, meeting biannually, with the minutes available on Transport Scotland's website.