Scotland has set an ambitious goal to become a world leader in road safety, aiming for zero deaths or serious injuries by 2050. To support this, Transport Scotland has commissioned a national Safe System Manual designed to help practitioners understand, adopt and apply Safe System principles consistently across the country. The manual has been shaped through extensive collaboration, including workshops with Scottish and international experts, to determine what content is essential, how it should be delivered and how it can remain relevant over time. These sessions explored practical needs across all Safe System components and road safety management considerations.

The development process included systematic prioritisation of material to identify the most important topics, understand gaps in global reference material and highlight areas requiring careful authorship. The emerging manual has been delivered through an accessible online platform supported by coaching, webinars, short learning sessions and a wider communications programme to build a strong practitioner community. The content guides users through core Safe System principles using practical operational content, while also addressing cultural factors that influence safety, such as organisational behaviour, advocacy and public perception. Overall, the project reflects Scotland’s commitment to investing in its practitioners and creating authoritative, practical guidance capable of driving long‑term, system‑wide improvement in road safety.

Matt Staton, Head of Consultancy, Agilysis

Matt Staton has been working in road safety since 2008. Matt developed his road safety career through 15 years working in Cambridgeshire, where he progressed from a Road Safety Officer to heading up the service, delivering up to 200 projects per year across road safety, structures and local highways improvements. He then became the Road Safety Partnership Delivery Manager for the Vision Zero Partnership in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

Before joining Agilysis in January 2025, Matt spent two years at National Highways as Head of Road User Safety Delivery, overseeing the organisation’s compliance activities, commercial vehicle incident prevention and support work for its regional teams.

George Henry, Head of Roads Policy and Safety, Transport Scotland

George Henry has undertaken a variety of roles within road safety in Scotland, including a leading role in the A77 Safety Group, a pioneering road safety partnership that won a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award. He was project sponsor for the A77 SPECS pilot, the first average speed enforcement system in Scotland.

In 2016, George became Head of Road Policy within Transport Scotland where he was responsible for a wide range of policies including Managed Motorways, Motorsports on Closed Roads and various aspects of parking. He developed the pavement parking policy of the Transport Bill. In his current role, George was responsible for the setting of the Government’s Casualty Reduction Targets to 2030 and the development of the new Road Safety Framework.