Transport Scotland spend on road salt: FOI release

Information requested

Please provide the total amount that Transport Scotland has spent on road grit, broken down into a table to reflect every financial year since 2020-21.

Response

For the purposes of this request, we have assumed the word ‘grit’ to mean ‘road salt’.

Transport Scotland has only procured strategic salt to increase national resilience in the event of a shortage. The Transport Scotland spend on this is as follows:

2020/2021 - £201,375.13
2021/2022 - £105,251.96
2022/2023 - £0
2023/2024 - £0
2024/2025 - £0

As the trunk road authority in Scotland, legislation requires Transport Scotland to take such steps as it considers reasonable to prevent snow and ice endangering the safe passage of pedestrians and vehicles over public roads.

We discharge this duty by having contracts in place with Operating Companies and Design, Build, Finance & Operator (DBFO) contract providers who ensure the trunk road network is safe, efficient and well managed. This includes winter service.

Winter service is a lump sum activity with monthly payments throughout the duration of our Operating Company contracts covering all aspects of the winter service delivery, including resources, fleet, infrastructure and salt procurement. Transport Scotland’s Operating Companies price the contract delivery over the entire period of the contract to include the element of risk in relation to salt usage and as such Transport Scotland do not directly have salt procurement figures.

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