Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2020

The Road Safety Framework published in 2009 called ‘Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2020 (Go Safe on Scotland’s Roads – It’s Everyone’s Responsibility)’.

The Road Safety Framework to 2020 brought forward a strong partnership approach to the delivery of many road safety strategies and initiatives, and has served us well. We could not have achieved this without the drive and determination of all our stakeholders working together to make a positive impact on road casualty reduction, and we will build on that going forward to 2030 and beyond by adding road danger reduction.

National statistics for road casualties reported to the police in Scotland in 2019 show the total number of casualties fell to 7,638, the lowest number since annual records began in 1950. In 2019, Scotland’s overall road death rate of 30 per million population was the eighth lowest of 41 countries surveyed in international comparisons.

However, one death is one too many and there is more we can do, and will do, to realise our vision.

The 2020 Framework: highlights from the last decade

The framework to 2020 has been running for almost a decade now and its success has been quantified by progress towards the current targets, as well as the completion of almost all 97 commitments (96 original + 1 added in the Mid-term Review) which remained relevant throughout the period.

The adoption of the Safe System and identification of three Priority Focus Areas of Age, Speed and Vulnerable Road Users in the 2016 Mid-term Review allowed us to concentrate our effort on areas where maximum impact could be achieved towards delivering the 2020 targets. This effort was supported by stronger partnership working, evidence-led decision-making and finance provided through the Framework Fund and the more-recent Evaluation Fund.

These measures contributed to Scotland’s roads being safer than in 2010, and created better conditions for delivery of the Healthy and Active Nation agenda.

Many of the road safety issues in the last decade at UN/EU or UK level have also been experienced in Scotland; there has been a substantial reduction in killed and seriously-injured casualties (KSIs) since the 1970s, but the recent plateauing of these reductions means road safety needs to be back at the top of the agenda. Most developed countries recognise that, to achieve further reductions in KSIs, a step change in road safety delivery is required: from providing focus for improved joint working, to embedding the Safe System ambition and approach into the delivery of national and local activity.

With the evaluation of this framework and the launch of the Road Safety Framework to 2030 we aim to achieve this.

Latest official data allows us to measure progress against the Scotland’s Road Safety Framework 2020 targets;

• 165 people were killed in 2019, a reduction of 43% since the baseline (performance currently exceeding the 2020 target of a 40% reduction).
• 2,016 people were seriously injured in 2019. Due to the changes in the recording of casualty severities, following Police Scotland’s use from around June/July 2019 of a new accident and casualty data recording system called CRaSH (Collision Reporting and Sharing), progress against this target is measured on the basis of adjusted figures, which show a reduction of 51% from the baseline (performance not currently on track to meet the 2020 target of a 55% reduction).
• On average, there were three children killed each year between 2017 and 2019: a reduction of 83% from the baseline (performance currently exceeding the 2020 target of a 50% reduction).