WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO
WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO
Transport Scotland was created in 2006 as an agency of the Scottish Government, accountable to Parliament and the public through the Scottish Ministers, with our Chief Executive reporting directly to the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change.
Transport Scotland is responsible, on behalf of Scottish Ministers, for overseeing the operation and improvement of the trunk road and railway networks, for running the national concessionary travel schemes and for the provision of travel information services. We also support Ministers in prioritising future transport investments.
Our strategic focus is to help the Scottish Government achieve its Purpose of creating a more successful country, with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish, through increasing sustainable economic growth. Our delivery priorities – improved connections across Scotland; better journey times, better reliability; greener transport alternatives, reduced emissions; and increased safety, more innovation – are all aligned to this end. Taken together, they provide a clear focus to enable us to develop and deliver efficient, effective and sustainable transport infrastructure and services for Scotland.
Our detailed delivery outcomes are set out in our Corporate Plan and annual Business Plans. Delivery against our targets for 2008/09 are summarised here.
Transport Scotland’s executive Directors report to the Chief Executive and with him form part of the Executive Board of Transport Scotland, on which they are also supported by two independent non-executive Directors, Dr Iain Docherty and Dr Jacqueline Redmond. The non-executive Directors do not have operational responsibilities and are not civil servants. They are appointed in line with public appointment procedures to bring external perspectives and experience to the organisation. They also constitute the audit committee together with a further external appointee, Eileen Marshall.
Malcolm Reed retired as Chief Executive in January 2009 and was replaced by David Middleton.
Richard Scott was appointed Director of Business Improvement in August 2008. Guy Houston resigned as Director of Finance and Corporate Services in November, following which Richard Scott also became Acting Director of Finance and Corporate Services. Subsequently, Richard Scott was appointed Director of Business Improvement and Corporate Services and continued to act as interim Director of Finance. Sharon Fairweather was appointed as Director of Finance in August 2009.
