National planning - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 284

17.7 National planning in Scotland
National transport planning in Scotland
At around the time of the 'New Deal' a separate Transport White Paper (Scottish
Office 1998) and Transport (Scotland) Act 2001 were produced for Scotland although
their content closely paralleled their English equivalents. However as in Wales there
was no equivalent of England's Ten Year Plan - if only because, in the early years of
devolved government, it would not have been practical politically or technically to
have undertaken such an exercise. The first overview of transport developments in
Scotland which reflected directions set by the new administration was published in
2002 (Scottish Executive 2002).
Political energies were focused more on bringing about institutional change (LTT
377). These were particularly concerned with creating mechanisms through which the
policy priority of major public transport investments could be delivered. A 2004 White
Paper (Scottish Executive 2004b) contained proposals enacted in the following year
(Transport (Scotland) Act 2005). This created a new national transport agency for
rail and trunk roads (Transport Scotland) together with powers for statutory Regional
Strategic Partnerships (18.8). The 2005 UK Railways Act also transferred policy
control of the rail network in Scotland to Scottish Ministers.
The 2004 White Paper signalled the intention to develop a National Transport
Strategy and contained the objectives which were to form its guiding principles. A
consultation exercise was mounted which invited responses on a large number of
policy choices (Scottish Executive 2006a). On the face of it this represented a welcome
contrast to the process followed in England, but in practice generated widespread
criticism for its lack of focus. For example:
We feel that it would have been of more value for the Scottish Executive to have
led a consultation on a proposed strategy, rather than consult on a document that
is basically a long and open-ended discussion paper.
(Comments of TRANSform, the Scottish campaign group for sustainable
transport, reported in LTT 450)
The final version of the Executive's strategy contains a series of policy packages
directed at three 'strategic outcomes' together with action plans for rail, buses and
freight (Scottish Executive 2006b). However unlike the situation in England the
strategy does not have the backing of an agreed medium-term expenditure plan and
progress will therefore be dependent on the outcomes of the Executive's Spending
Reviews. The Executive intends to develop a range of indicators for measuring progress
against the strategic outcomes and the strategy is planned to be reviewed every four
years.
The strategy provides the policy framework for the range of planning processes in
the country (Figure 17.3). These include a national review of major projects (Transport
Scotland 2008b) which is the first ever nation-wide, multi-modal evaluation aimed at
recommending a programme of interventions for implementation between 2012 and
2022.