Scottish Government fumbling plans to collect more evidence on traffic incidents

Scottish Liberal Democrats have today criticised the Scottish Government for fumbling plans to allow members of the public to upload videos of traffic incidents that could then be used by Police Scotland for targeting enforcement efforts.

Proposals have been put forward for a National Dashcam Safety Portal (NSDP) which would allow the public to report poor road user behaviour, supported by digital video evidence, similar to those already operated by the majority of other UK police forces.

In October 2021 an NDSP pilot project was approved by Police Scotland and a grant of £300,484, payable over the financial years 2021 to 2024, was provided through Transport Scotland's Road Safety Framework, with the pilot anticipated to commence in January 2023.

However documents released to Scottish Liberal Democrats by Police Scotland reveal that:

• In June 2022 the project was advised that due to shortages of specialist support – the project could not be prioritised and would not be able to meet the January 2023 target date.
• In October 2022 Road Policing were advised that a number of projects – including the NDSP – were to be paused pending clarification of the budgetary position for 2023/24.
• Just £21,732 has been drawn down from the grant of £300,484 provided by Transport Scotland.  
• Police Scotland are now proposing that rather than progressing straight to a pilot of the NDSP, “A business case is developed that would offer the opportunity to consider the service design and technology solution for implementation of NDSP which would ensure what is proposed is actionable beyond a pilot - able to be scaled up and has considered the range of things required for a national capability implementation.” This would cost at least £200,000 for further work on a business case before a pilot programme could take place.

Justice spokesperson Liam McArthur said:

“The then Transport minister Kevin Stewart called these proposals “an important safety initiative” but the Scottish Government are fumbling.

“Providing a more efficient and accessible means for the public to report poor road user behaviour and offer up supporting digital video evidence has the potential to allow for more effective and targeted enforcement intervention and in turn reduce bad behaviour on our roads.

“Piloting this initiative will allow us to assess whether it is an effective approach before any wider rollout.

“Sadly Scottish Government budget cuts are taking their toll on our police service and projects like this are being allowed to fall by the wayside, even though this is an area where Scotland is way behind the majority of UK forces.

“Ministers must discuss what additional resource they can provide to ensure that a successful pilot goes ahead and what can be done to speed up this work.”