Scotland's Road Safety Framework To 2020 Annual Report 2012

Links to UK, Europe and Beyond

10. The UK Government's approach to continuing casualty reduction on Britain's roads is set out in its Strategic Framework, published in 2011. An update to the Action Plan was recently published. The focus is on increasing the range of educational options for drivers who make genuine mistakes and can be helped to improve while, at the same time, improving enforcement against the most dangerous and deliberate offenders. There are no UK-wide casualty reduction targets, and in reference to this the Framework says:

"To deliver decentralisation and empowerment we do not consider that local service deliverers need further central persuasion on the importance of road safety. We do not therefore believe that over-arching national targets or central diktat that constrains local ambitions and priorities are now the most effective way of improving road safety. We expect central and local government to continue to prioritise road safety and continue to seek improvements. Central government should be judged against the actions that we commit to in our Road Safety Action Plan. Equally, we expect local government and service providers to be judged against their actions".

11. Keith Brown, Minister for Transport and Veterans delivered a speech to over 200 delegates of the TISPOL International Road Safety Conference in Edinburgh on 2nd October. In attendance were police officers, policymakers and road safety professionals from 31 countries, across Europe and beyond, who were considering ways of protecting vulnerable road users. This was an ideal platform for the Minister to inform delegates about the good work being done in this country, through the implementation of Scotland's Road Safety Framework to 2020.

12. There has been other positive feedback from Europe on what we are doing to make Scotland's roads safer, with Scottish Ministers' proposals for a lower drink-drive limit being very well received by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC).

13. The period 2011-2020 was designated by The United Nations General Assembly as the Decade of Action for Road Safety, "with a goal to stabilise and then reduce the forecast level of road traffic fatalities around the world by increasing activities conducted at the national, regional and global levels". A Global Plan has been developed founded on five pillars of activity: building road safety management capacity; upgrading the safety of road infrastructure; further developing the safety of vehicles; enhancing the behaviour of road users; and improving emergency services. Scotland very much supports the Decade of Action and marked the launch in 2011 with a competition for Junior Road Safety Officers (JRSOs). The JRSO website was developed not only to link up JRSOs in Scotland but also to link with schoolchildren across the world to share their activities and experiences in road safety. We remain committed to supporting this initiative.