Transport Scotland Trunk Road Casualty Reduction Budget information: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for the following information regarding the "Trunk Road Casualty Reduction Budget" referenced in ministerial briefings disclosed under FOI reference 202600502923. No public information appears to exist on this fund hence the request.

The December 2025 ministerial briefing stated that Trunk Road 20mph orders are "being funded from within Trunk Road casualty reduction budget." The August 2024 briefing referenced "future years casualty reduction funds."

I request the following information:

1. POLICY AND CRITERIA

a) Please provide any policy document, financial framework, governance paper, guidance, or criteria that defines what the "Trunk Road Casualty Reduction Budget" is and what expenditure can be charged to it.

b) If no such document exists, please confirm this explicitly.

c) When was this budget established (financial year)?

d) Under what authority or decision was this budget established (e.g., ministerial decision, Transport Scotland business case, Scottish Budget allocation)?

2. EVIDENCE REQUIREMENTS

a) Does Transport Scotland policy require baseline casualty data (fatalities, serious injuries, slight injuries) to be gathered for a road before expenditure from the Trunk Road Casualty Reduction Budget can be approved for that road?

Please answer: YES / NO / NO POLICY EXISTS

If YES: Please provide a copy of the policy document or guidance that sets out this requirement.

b) Does Transport Scotland policy require evidence of road danger, accident history, or collision records before expenditure from this budget can be approved?

Please answer: YES / NO / NO POLICY EXISTS

If YES: Please provide a copy of the policy document or guidance that sets out this requirement.

3. EVALUATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY

a) What methodology does Transport Scotland use to evaluate whether expenditure from the Trunk Road Casualty Reduction Budget has achieved casualty reduction?

b) For the 75 trunk road locations receiving 20mph limits (as referenced in FOI 202600502923), was baseline casualty data gathered for each location before the decision to implement 20mph limits was made?

Please answer: YES / NO

If YES: Please provide the baseline casualty data for each of the 75 locations (number of fatalities, serious injuries, and slight injuries for the 5-year period before the decision was made).

4. FINANCIAL INFORMATION

a) Total amount spent from the Trunk Road Casualty Reduction Budget on 20mph implementation (temporary and permanent orders) from 2022-23 to present, broken down by financial year.

b) Total allocation to the Trunk Road Casualty Reduction Budget for financial years 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25, and 2025-26.

Response

To aid my response I have answered your questions in the order that they were received.

Q1a. Please provide any policy document, financial framework, governance paper, guidance, or criteria that defines what the "Trunk Road Casualty Reduction Budget" is and what expenditure can be charged to it.#

A1a. The following documents set out the policy and legislative governance which informs the investment on trunk road casualty reduction.

Scottish Ministers have a statutory legal duty to keep roads safe: The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 provides Ministers with a wide range of powers under the Act to do things in connection with maintaining and keeping safe the roads for which they are responsible you can access the Act here: Roads (Scotland) Act 1984. Road safety considerations are an inherent part of managing and maintaining the trunk road network as roads authority under s2 of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984. Various provisions in the Act enable and oblige Ministers to take action to maintain and protect the safety of road users e.g. the power to carry out works to the road to protect from hazards of nature (section 30) and the duty to take steps to obviate any roadside danger (section 98).

The National Transport Strategy, National Transport Strategy | Transport Scotland published in 2020, sets out an ambitious and compelling vision for Scotland’s transport system for the next 20 years, one that protects the climate and improves lives. In particular, the section on ‘Improves our Health and Wellbeing, the strategy further details the policies to realise this Priority and Outcomes include:

• Increase safety of the transport system and meet casualty reduction targets
• Ensure that transport assets and services adopt the Place Principle
• Reduce the negative impacts which transport has on the safety, health and wellbeing of people
• Provide a transport system that promotes and facilitates active travel choices which help to improve people’s health and wellbeing across mainland Scotland and the Islands

Transport Scotland commenced the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) to help inform transport investment in Scotland for the next 20 years. The output from the STPR2 helps to deliver the vision, priorities and outcomes for transport set out in the National Transport Strategy (NTS2), aligning with other national plans such as the Climate Change Plan Update, the National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET) and the Revised Draft Fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4). You can access the review and summary report here: Strategic Transport Projects Review 2 | Transport Scotland STPR2 Summary Report

The STPR2 is to inform Scottish Ministers on a programme of potential transport investment opportunities for the period 2022-2042. Recommendation 30 within STPR2 under the theme ‘increasing safety and resilience on the strategic transport network’, recommendation 30 states ‘Trunk road and motorway safety improvements to progress towards ‘Vision Zero’. STPR2 also specifically includes reference to the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government (PfG) commitment to deliver 20mph limits on appropriate roads.

The United Kingdom that included Scotland was a signatory to the Stockholm Declaration, which was adopted by governments globally in 2020 at the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, and which includes a call to mandate a maximum road travel speed of 30kmh (20 mph) in areas where vulnerable road users and vehicles mix in a frequent and planned manner. Please see Annex A to this response for a copy of this Declaration.

Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2030 sets out a vision for Scotland to have the best road safety performance in the world by 2030 and an ambitious long term goal where no one is seriously injured or killed on our roads by 2050. The Framework builds on what has already been achieved here in Scotland over the last decade. It sets out new strategic outcomes for road safety, built around the safe system approach to road safety; safe road use, safe roads and roadsides, safe speeds, safe vehicles and post-crash response. You can access Scotland’s Road Safety Framework here: Safety Framework to 2030 | Transport Scotland

The Trunk Road Casualty Reduction programme delivers low cost engineering measures in those locations across the Trunk Roads where either, historic collision records indicates there is a treatable safety issue of sufficient prominence to warrant that investment and/or to work to deliver the safe system approach to road safety on the trunk road network.

Q1b. If no such document exists, please confirm this explicitly.

A2b. There is no one document, as noted above there are a number of wider national and international documents.

Q1c. When was this budget established (financial year)?

A1c. This budget has existed for at least 40 years and predates both Transport Scotland and Devolution. In the early 1990s the Scottish Office Industry Department had an Accident Investigation and Prevention (AIP) budget for trunk roads. This was administered by the Network Management Division AIP Unit to address work arising from the “Moving Cursor” analysis of accidents on the Network. It was inherited by Transport Scotland in 2006. Around 2010 it was rebadged as the Strategic Road Safety budget and again in 2022 to the Trunk Road Casualty Reduction budget.

Q1d. Under what authority or decision was this budget established (e.g., ministerial decision, Transport Scotland business case, Scottish Budget allocation)?

AQ1d. See response to 1a and 1c. Scottish Ministers have a statutory legal duty to keep roads safe and a wide range of powers under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 to do things in connection with maintaining and keeping safe the roads for which they are responsible as well as strategies and frameworks with delivery supported by investment. Trunk Road Casualty Reduction investment is included in the Scottish Government’s annual budget process and approved by the Scottish Parliament each year.

Q2a. Does Transport Scotland policy require baseline casualty data (fatalities, serious injuries, slight injuries) to be gathered for a road before expenditure from the Trunk Road Casualty Reduction Budget can be approved for that road?

Please answer: YES / NO / NO POLICY EXISTS

If YES: Please provide a copy of the policy document or guidance that sets out this requirement.

A2a. No. Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2030 sets out a vision for Scotland to have the best road safety performance in the world by 2030 and an ambitious long term goal where no one is seriously injured or killed on our roads by 2050. The Framework builds on what has already been achieved here in Scotland over the last decade. It sets out new strategic outcomes for road safety, built around the safe system approach to road safety; safe road use, safe roads and roadsides, safe speeds, safe vehicles and post-crash response.

Whilst personal injury accident information is still used, it is not a requisite for expenditure from the Trunk Road Casualty Reduction Budget.

Q2b. Does Transport Scotland policy require evidence of road danger, accident history, or collision records before expenditure from this budget can be approved?

Please answer: YES / NO / NO POLICY EXISTS

If YES: Please provide a copy of the policy document or guidance that sets out this requirement.

A2b. No, refer to response to 2a.

Q3a. What methodology does Transport Scotland use to evaluate whether expenditure from the Trunk Road Casualty Reduction Budget has achieved casualty reduction?

A3a. Transport Scotland assesses the safety performance of the trunk road network against the Scottish Governments Casualty Reduction Targets to 2030.

In respect of casualty reduction schemes where collisions have occurred, Transport Scotland considers ‘First Year Rate of Return’ which is a measure of the likely casualty savings resulting from a scheme during its first year of operation compared to the scheme cost.

Q3b. For the 75 trunk road locations receiving 20mph limits (as referenced in FOI 202600502923), was baseline casualty data gathered for each location before the decision to implement 20mph limits was made?

Please answer: YES / NO

If YES: Please provide the baseline casualty data for each of the 75 locations (number of fatalities, serious injuries, and slight injuries for the 5-year period before the decision was made).

A3b. No

Q4a. Total amount spent from the Trunk Road Casualty Reduction Budget on 20mph implementation (temporary and permanent orders) from 2022-23 to present, broken down by financial year.

A4a. The following figures represent the measured spend on 20mph implementation and include investigation, design, environmental and construction costs.

2022-2023 - £ 3,532.55
2023-2024 - £ 319,256.21
2024-2025 - £ 899,530.25
2025-2026* - £ 1,502,413.86
*Up to end of January 2026

Q4b. Total allocation to the Trunk Road Casualty Reduction Budget for financial years 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25, and 2025-26.

A4b. The Trunk Road Casualty Reduction Budget has been as follows:

2022-2023 - £9,700,000
2023-2024 - £10,500,000
2024-2025 - £12,000,000
2025-2026 - £12,250,000

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FOI 202600507920 - Information Released - Annex A

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