The number of road traffic accidents in Scotland involving foreign or non-UK resident drivers (e.g., overseas licence holders, tourist drivers, or vehicles registered outside the UK) has been revealed following a Freedom of Information request.
Transport Scotland was asked to provide:
- Annual figures for the most recent five years.
- Breakdown by accident severity (fatal, serious, slight).
- Breakdown by road type (motorway, trunk road, urban, rural).
- Breakdown by geographical area/local authority.
The request also asked that if nationality or residence status is not recorded directly, that Transport Scotland provide any available proxy data, such as vehicle country of registration or any other field that may indicate foreign drivers.
Transport Scotland’s response suggested that it was unable to identify whether the vehicles involved in collisions are being driven by foreign drivers. However, it was able to identify left-hand drive vehicles that were involved in crashes. In 2024, according to the data, there were 155 ‘injury collisions’ involving left-hand drive vehicles, up from 114 in 2023 and just 42 in 2021.
“The records we hold relate to collisions where someone is injured or killed, and which become known to Police Scotland. Therefore,” said Transport Scotland, “we do not hold records relating to damage-only collisions. Please note that any figures for 2024 are provisional as they are based on monthly returns received thus far from Police Scotland, with the most recent returns being received on 10th September 2025. This may be an incomplete picture of casualties up to that date due to a slight lag between collisions occurring and records being processed and shared by Police Scotland. These figures are also subject to change due to subsequent corrections and late records.”
The records held by Transport Scotland do not include driver nationality or vehicle registration country. The aforementioned Excel spreadsheet can be accessed: FOI 202500487513 – Information released – Annex
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