Seòmar agus comataidhean

As no other members wish to add anything, are we content to proceed as recommended by Alexander Stewart?

Members indicated agreement.

We will close the petition. We thank the petitioners for raising it with us. In closing it, we will write to the Scottish Government to get the timeline for the items that it has agreed to pursue.

Thank you very much, minister and Mr Howieson. Jackie Baillie, who has supported the petitioners in the development of the petition, has been listening to proceedings. Jackie, would you like to make a statement that the committee can consider along with the evidence that we have heard this morning?

Thank you, Ms Baillie. I do not think that it would be quite right for members of the Parliament who are not members of the committee to cross-examine the minister, but, if the minister would like to say anything to the committee before we draw the session to a conclusion, we would be very pleased to hear that.

As we come to the end of the evidence session, I want to give the witnesses the opportunity to mention anything that we have not touched on. Obviously, we will have the round-table session shortly, and I know that you are going to stay in the public gallery to observe that. Is there anything that you would like to add to our thinking?

Thank you. I will bring in the first of our virtual contributors: Claudia Rowse from NatureScot.

If there are no other suggestions, we will take forward the petition on that basis.

Thank you very much, Callum. It has been an absolute pleasure to have you here. I hope that you will have a great day. We will take forward the petition and, after you have met the First Minister, we will ask her to honour whatever commitments you can get out of her and we will see what we can do to put your petition into practice.

I suspend the meeting briefly.

Doug Howieson.

I am letting people know who is speaking. There can be confusion about voices. It is not always clear who will speak.

Can I come back to you in a moment, then?

We will continue with the balance of item 1, which is the consideration of continued petitions. PE1856, on supporting the taxi trade, was lodged by Pat Rafferty on behalf of Unite. Members will recall that the petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to protect the future of the taxi trade by providing financial support to taxi drivers, setting up a national stakeholder group with trade union driver representatives and reviewing low-emission standards and implementation dates.

At our last consideration of the petition, we agreed to write to key stakeholders and to seek information directly from people in the sector. In particular, the committee sought figures on the number of taxi licence holders prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and the current number.

So far, we have received responses from 12 local authorities and the Scottish Taxi Federation. Five of those local authorities provided details of taxi and private operator figures, which indicated that there were 3,748 operators before the pandemic and that the number has now fallen to 3,258 operators. That illustrates a reduction of 490, with four out of the five local authorities seeing a reduction in the number of operators in the area.

Twelve local authorities provided details of taxi and private driver licences, which indicated that there were 11,436 licences before the pandemic and that there are now 9,348 licences. That is a reduction of 2,088, or nearly 20 per cent, which is pretty significant, with 11 out of the 12 local authorities seeing a reduction in the number of driver licences.

The Scottish Taxi Federation’s response highlights a number of issues for its members, including an ageing workforce—I think that I read that taxi drivers tend to be in their mid-50s or, increasingly, older still. Other issues include low-emission zones and their possible impact on the viability of the taxis that many owners have invested in and the high cost of low-emission zone-compatible vehicles. I imagine—although it has not been suggested in advance of today’s meeting—that a very immediate challenge could well be the price of fuel, which we know will be affected by the current international situation.

In the light of all that, I certainly found the reduction in the number of taxis in my local authority quite significant, given the post-pandemic challenges in relation to the restoration of bus and rail services. With a 20 per cent reduction in the number of available taxis, they could become an increasingly difficult to obtain and even more expensive option. There are some really serious issues underpinning all of this.

Do colleagues have any comments or suggestions on how we might proceed?