Road Safety Strategic Partnership Board - meeting minutes - 11 June 2025
Attendance
Members
- Fiona Hyslop (Chair) - Cabinet Secretary for Transport
- Hugh Gillies (HG) - Transport Scotland (TS) - Director of Roads
- George Henry (GH) – TS – Head of Roads Policy and Safety
- Alan Waddell (AW) – Police Scotland
- Hilary Sloan (HS) – Police Scotland
- Robert Nicol (RN) – Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)
- Councillor Gail MacGregor (GM) – Spokesperson for Environment and Economy - COSLA
- Colin Park (CP) - The Scottish Collaboration of Transportation Specialists (SCOTS)
- Oliver Harding (OH) – National Health Service (NHS)
In Attendance
- Meg Robertson (MR) – COSLA
- Cathy Barlow (CB) – Scottish Fire & Rescue Service (SFRS)
- Stewart Leggett (SL) – TS - Head of Operations
- Stephen Ried (SR) – Police Scotland – Criminal Intelligence Analyst
- Michelle Van der stighelen (MVds) – TS – Safety Camera Programme
- Andrew Paterson (AP) – TS – Statistics
- Ryan Gilbert (RG) – TS – Strategic Communications Manager (Roads)
- Steven Feeney (SF) – TS – Road Safety Policy
- Ben McKenna (BM) – TS – Road Safety Policy
Apologies
- Graham Foster – NHS
- Kenneth Barbour – Scottish Fire & Rescue Service (SFRS)
Secretariat
- Hannah Wood (HW) – TS – Road Safety Policy
Welcome and Introductions
The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and emphasised the importance of collective partnership working in addressing road safety challenges. The recent publication of the Key Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2024 was highlighted together with the impact of these findings of efforts to achieve casualty reduction targets. The Chair advised of the urgency of addressing these issues and highlighted the SGs record £48m investment in road safety for 2025–26, which included funding for the national roll out of 20s, Road Safety Improvement Fund and national behaviour change campaigns. The Board also noted that over 19,500 responses had been received from the National Speed Management Review consultation and that results were being analysed.
The chair acknowledged the importance of these board meetings, advised that each meeting in future would be in-person and encouraged all other groups that make up the road safety governance to adopt the same approach.
Knowledge, Data & Analysis
Previous Minutes and Actions
The previous minutes were circulated and no comments received, these have since been published.
High Level Road Safety Performance Update
The latest management information data was provided, and the Board noted that Police Scotland continued to monitor the analytical data to identify trends in activity and investigate how casualties can be prevented.
Key Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2024
The Board noted the increase in road fatalities from 147 in 2023 to 160 in 2024, while serious injuries remained stable and slight injuries decreased by 7%. It was noted that the overall rise in deaths was driven primarily by car occupant fatalities, which rose from 57 to 74.
Road Traffic Fatality Research
SR presented findings from the in-depth analysis of fatalities from 2015 to 2024. Once published, this research will inform updated recommendations for the four Key Priority Groups to consider how best to deliver.
Road Safety Framework to 2030
Mid-Term Review
The Board noted that a Mid-Term review in to the Road Safety Framework will be undertaken. GH advised that this will assess performance indicators, delivery monitoring and international comparisons. The Board noted that a procurement process to identify consultants to support this work was underway and members would be kept abreast of progress.
High Level Partner Updates
CoSLA
CoSLA’s advised of their ongoing work around car reduction usage and its intersection with road safety and public health outcomes. They highlighted recent collaboration with Transport Scotland and noted that a statement on car reduction was close to publication. This work is being positioned not just as a transport issue, but as one with broader implications for safety and health.
CoSLA acknowledged the importance of including road safety in community planning partnership board meetings and expressed willingness to collaborate further to ensure road safety is embedded in local planning and decision-making, noting that this will be held as an agenda item going forward.
Police Scotland
The Board noted that Police Scotland had established a governance board to deliver on the recommendations flowing from HMICS Thematic Inspection in to Roads Policing. CS HS advised that updates on this work would be shared with the Board in due course. In addition ACC AW noted that divisional commanders from Police Scotland sit on community planning partnership boards and offered to support CoSLA in ensuring that there is a focus on road safety challenges at these meetings.
SCOTS
CP also offered support in relation to ensuring road safety is on the agenda at community planning partnership meetings.
CP provided an overview of SCOTS ongoing work in supporting local authorities to deliver road safety improvements. The Board noted that SCOTS continued to share best practice across councils and that SCOTS had been involved in aligning local authority efforts with national road safety priorities. While many local authorities are making progress, there is variation in capacity and resources, which can affect consistency in delivery.
NHS
OH advised the Board that there was a growing recognition of road safety as a public health issue and the importance of integrating health perspectives into road safety strategy.
OH presented a paper from Public Health Scotland, for a pilot project aimed at improving how existing data sources are combined and used to monitor and evaluate road safety progress. The Board agreed to support the proposal for a 12 month period and that the project be reviewed periodically to assess progress.
OH also presented a paper which supported the proposal for Public Health Scotland to become a formal member of the Strategic Partnership Board, noting that their national remit and strategic role in improving population health aligns well with the goals of the Road Safety Framework. The Board agreed with the proposal.
Scottish Fire & Rescue (SFRS)
CB outlined SFRS’s continued commitment to road safety through education and prevention-focused activities. The Board noted that SFRS aligning its road safety work with the national framework rather than developing a separate standalone strategy.
CB also welcomed the idea of having someone from the fatality research team speak to SFRS’s internal road safety practitioner group, to highlight trends and ensure that these are being addressed at a local level.
GH noted that there is no statutory duty for SFRS to deliver road safety and suggested that it may be useful for SFRS, Police Scotland and Transport Scotland to discuss this further.
Safety Camera Programme
MvS advised that Board that the Safety Camera Programme had made progress in improving performance and enforcement capability since the last meeting. The Board noted that a key development had been to progression to operational deployment of new mobile cameras, the progress towards completion the most recent annual site selection exercise, and progression with the annual 2024–25 process. In addition, the Board noted that plans were in place to deploy Temporary Average Speed Camera systems at two locations over the summer months. MvS further advised that plans were progressing to deploy innovative camera based technology which can detect drivers using a handheld device and those not wearing a seatbelt.
Communications Handling Plan
RG updated members on activity that had been delivered to promote road safety investment. Discussions focused on improving public messaging, particularly targeting young drivers and high-risk behaviours.
Road Safety Progress and Commitments
Road Safety Funding
GH confirmed that the 2025/26 budget includes a record level of funding for road safety of £48m, a 33% increase. GH advised of the need for local authorities to be ready with project proposals aligned to their allocations for the Road Safety Improvement Fund. It was agreed that GH will meet with SCOTS executive group and arrange for webinars to go over the Road Safety Improvement Fund.
Delivery Plan – Progress & Development
The Board reviewed the current delivery plan and noted that most deliverables were progressing well, with only two ongoing. GH emphasised the importance of aligning the delivery plan with the mid-term review, which will assess progress and identify areas needing adjustment.
Mid-Term Review
Members highlighted that driver behaviour had declined and suggested a national campaign to highlight personal responsibility in road safety.
Members also discussed the importance of impactful messaging, especially for younger audiences, and were keen to identify what social media channels younger road users use to consume information, to allow us to deliver targeting messaging.
Motorcycle safety, seatbelt use, and behaviour change were amongst the areas partners identified as needing urgent action.
It was proposed that consideration be given to further engagement with young driver as a way to better understand and influence young driver behaviour, which has been identified as a high-risk group. GH agreed to progress this with Road Safety Scotland (RSS).
Risk Register
Members evaluated the current risks and scoring and identified four new risks to be included:
- Is the Road Safety Framework governance structure correct and functioning appropriately.
- If we continue to miss targets, then resources and funding may be reviewed.
- If we don’t meet our targets and deliver road safety deliverables this may have a negative impact on other policy areas, including active travel, mode sharing and child poverty.
- If road safety partners fail to share information and data with one another, this will result in gaps in knowledge resulting in nonoptimal road safety activity being undertaken
Action 123: Governance group meetings to take place in person.
Owner: Road Safety Policy
Action 124: Members to collaborate on proactive communications during good weather periods to address seasonal risk.
Owner: Police Scotland
Action 125: Further investigate seasonal spikes noted in the in-depth fatality research presentation.
Owner: Stephen Reid
Action 126: Provide a programme and timeline for the Mid-Term Review to Board members.
Owner: George Henry
Action 127: Share progress updates from the HMICS governance board at the next meeting and as required.
Owner: Police Scotland
Action 128: Members to collaborate to ensure that there is a focus on road safety matters at Community Planning Partnership meetings.
Owner: CoSLA, Police Scotland & SCOTS
Action 129: Inform secretariat who will represent Public Health Scotland at future board meetings.
Owner: Oliver Harding
Action 130: Issue Terms of Reference to Public Health Scotland representative.
Owner: Secretariat
Action 131: Stephen Reid and SFRS to liaise with regards to attending road safety practitioner group and presenting findings from the in-depth fatality research.
Owner: Stephen Reid & SFRS
Action 132: George to facilitate a meeting with SFRS, Police Scotland & Road Safety Scotland around road safety education.
Owner: George Henry
Action 133: Consider ways to further engage with young drivers to better understand and influence young driver behaviour and how they consume information.
Owner: George Henry to discuss with Road Safety Scotland
Action 134: Consider international comparisons on road safety performance during Mid-term Review
Owner: George Henry
Action 135: Provide an update on DESC at the next meeting, detail the programme for delivery and consider comms messaging ahead of full-scale national roll out.
Owner: Hilary Sloan
Action 136: GH to be invited to next SCOTS Executive Group meeting to discuss local authorities utilising their Road Safety Funding.
Owner: Colin Park & George Henry
Action 137: Liaise with the new comms public relations manager at CoSLA.
Owner: Ryan Gilbert
Action 138: Arrange webinars to highlight the Road Safety Improvement fund to local authorities.
Owner: Ben McKenna & George Henry
Action 139: Update the Risk Register and issue to members for approval.
Owner: Secretariat