How It Is Governed

The Scottish Safety Camera Programme is promoted by the Scottish Government.

There are governance arrangements both locally and nationally.

Local Governance and Management:

Locally, there are THREE areas of governance provided by a project office, a working group and a steering group. The steering group is sometimes also known as the local project board.

Each partnership has a project office with a full-time Project Manager, Communications Manager and in many cases a Data Analyst. Depending on the size of the partnership there may also be administration support staff.

The working group includes at least one member of each of the key partners and provides operational support to the project office. The steering group or project board provides strategic direction and oversees performance at a local level.

National Governance:

At national level, there are two areas of governance - the Programme Office and the Scottish Advisory Board. Both were established in 2003.

The Programme Office provides policy development and management of the Programme at national level. It provides support to partnerships, monitoring finance and performance, and co-ordinates, research and national communications.

The Programme Office reports to the Scottish Safety Camera Advisory Board which meets quarterly. The Board was created to advise the Scottish Government on all operational issues for the safety camera programme and to monitor and advise on the activities of the Programme Office.

Membership of the Scottish Safety Camera Advisory Board is drawn from the Executive (including the Crown Office), the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS), the Society of Chiefs of Transport Scotland (SCOTS), District Courts Association, COSLA, the Scottish Road Safety Campaign, Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and a Scottish partnership.

Another place is filled on a rotational basis by a representative from key motoring organisations, ie the AA Motoring Trust, British Motorcyclists Federation and the RAC Foundation.

Observers also attend from the Scottish Programme Office, HM Treasury, Department for Transport and the Driving Standards Agency.

Handbooks of Rules and Guidance

When the UK Safety Camera Programme was first piloted in April 2000, DFT in conjunction with HM Treasury, developed a Programme for cost recovery. This allowed the fine revenue from safety cameras to be used to fund additional camera activity for targeted enforcement at sites with  an accident, speed and/or red-light running history.

The Programme has since evolved and expanded. This has lead to several iterations of the Handbook of Rules and Guidance for the cost recovery system for speed and red light camera enforcement. As the Programme has developed over the years, site selection criteria has been modified and refined. A number of pre-existing cameras and mobile sites have also been accepted into the Programme but are now subjected to the rolling three-year review process. Some cameras installed as part of route strategies are evaluated not in isolation but rather in terms of their performance as part of that strategy.

Camera sites therefore may have been approved under different criteria depending on which Handbook was applicable at the time partnerships submitted their operational case. All iterations of the Handbook can be found below: