Professor John Robertson OBA
The Scottish Tories are in the Scotsman front page again today to try to undermine the Scottish government with some very carefully selected statistics on the A1 road deaths.
I saw the Reported collisions on the A1 between Edinburgh and Lamberton: FOI release when it was published without revealing who had requested it, on July 10th 2025 and wondered then if the response had been a disappointment to the Border Tories and their local media pals. It had and so, three months later, they’ve decided just to fiddle it and get the ever-willing Scotsman to publish it.
Here are the uncomfortable, for them, facts:
In the above table, zero deaths and total injury collisions down more than one third. Imagine if it had been the other way round and the blame thrown at the SNP Government?
https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202500460201/
What’s the rest of the A1 like?
Britain’s deadliest road as drivers warned over motorway that needs ‘extra concentration’ – They explained: “Along its stretch, it passes through Rutland in the East Midlands, which is home to around 38,000 residents. Shockingly, the number of fatalities on the road in this region is equal to around five deaths per 10,000 people.
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/1989735/britain-deadly-motorway-a1m-crashes
That’s nearly 20 deaths in just one section near Rutland, East Midlands.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
It is of note that the A1 – an inanimate human construction – is called the ‘deadliest’ road. The road just IS. It is the behaviour of some drivers that is ‘deadly’.
What the Tories and other petrolheads want is more road capacity and higher speed limits. There has been evidence going back to before the Second World War that increasing road capacity increases traffic volumes, much of it being large, heavy SUVs. Increasing speeds means increased kinetic energy and when collisions occur this greater amount of kinetic energy results in far more serious injuries and more deaths.
Public investment should not be in roads but in rail routes and bus services.
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Also worth mentioning Labour cancelled an upgrade to the A1 on the other side of the border.
This report dated 15th July 2025 from BBC Tyne said the Tories shelved it in 2021!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce9xp98pkr0o
“A leaked government report has revealed 2021 plans to dual the A1 were quietly shelved.
The scheme to upgrade the 13-mile (20km) section of road between Morpeth and Ellingham was cancelled by the Labour government last year.”
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