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The Community Bus Fund is intended to support local transport authorities to improve local public transport in their areas. This can include exploring the full range of options set out in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, including Bus Services Improvement Partnerships.

In 2023-24, the Community Bus Fund provided £750,000 in resource funding for transport authorities to complete initial feasibility and preparatory work required for the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019. A further £5 million of capital funding was allocated to local authorities, with greater levels of support for rural areas facing different challenges to those in cities.

The Scottish Government’s vision and priorities for Scotland’s transport system, including bus patronage, are set out in the National Transport Strategy which was published in February 2020. The Scottish Government will continue to explore opportunities to make bus, and public transport more generally, a more attractive option for existing and new users.

The Fair Fares Review, published in March 2024, sets out our aim to ensure Scotland’s public transport system is more accessible, available, and affordable, with the costs of transport more fairly shared across government, business, and society. The Review highlights the need to prioritise measures to grow bus patronage and sets out a number of recommendations and actions specific to bus to deliver on our vision for the Future of Public Transport. This includes a commitment to develop a bus service improvement plan and delivery framework, over the next 18 months to improve future availability of bus services across Scotland.

The document referred to in the question is intended to provide guidance for English Local Transport Authorities (LTA), outside London, in updating their Bus Service Improvement Plans, in line with the National Bus Strategy for England. This strategy, originally produced in 2021, sets out a mission to rebuild bus patronage and mode share first to 2019 levels, and then to go beyond.

In Scotland we have empowered local transport authorities with the flexible tools they need to respond to their own transport challenges, by delivering all the bus powers within the 2019 Act. This approach enables them to determine what actions are best for their local areas, allowing them to revitalise bus services according to their needs.

The Scottish Government has invested over £65 million to support the installation of over 2,800 public EV charge points across Scotland as part of the ChargePlace Scotland(CPS) EV charging network. As a direct result, Scotland has over 4,880 public EV charge points and the best provision of public charge points per head of population of anywhere in the UK, outside of London, and the most rapid charge points per head of population of any region in the UK.

Transport Scotland has also provided £5.7 million to support the installation of 18,861 domestic charge points and £10.8 million to support 1,432 higher powered workplace charge points, complementing the public network.

In addition, the Scottish Government published the Vision for Scotland’s Public Electric Vehicle Charging Network last year, highlighting the need for a transition towards a public charging network that is largely financed and delivered by the private sector. This work is being supported through the £60m EV Infrastructure Fund(EVIF), where we are supporting local authorities across Scotland to work with the private sector to lever in the private investment needed to develop the EV charging network in Scotland at the pace and scale required to meet future demands.

Notwithstanding the fact that licensed motor vehicles, including cars, are at highest levels both in terms of number and age, we are committed to finding ways to make alternative travel modes more attractive, and supporting people to take fewer journeys by car. The Scottish Government’s plans to encourage the use of public transport and active travel alongside plans to reduce car use, are set out in the draft route map on 20% reduction in car kilometres by 2030, jointly developed with COSLA. Our 2023 Programme for Government included a commitment to publish a final version of the route map to achieving the 20% car kilometre reduction this year, and we look forward to publishing this in the coming months.

Following significant pandemic-related road traffic reductions in 2020, the latest figures show that estimated road traffic continued to rebound, increasing by 9% overall (to 47 billion vehicle kilometres) and by 10.7% for car km between 2021 and 2022. A 6.3% reduction against the 2019 baseline for car km travelled reflects ongoing changes to travel patterns, including increased use of digital connectivity. It is also worth noting that fewer people drove every day in 2022 (34%) compared to 2019 (43%).

There remains however uncertainty regarding travel patterns in the longer term, but it is expected car traffic will continue to rise in subsequent years before interventions to deliver reductions in car traffic start to make an impact. Evidence is clear that incentivising sustainable alternatives alone will not be sufficient to bring about the behaviour change to deliver the scale of 20% car KM reduction.

The most direct levers on the cost of buying or running a petrol or diesel car – fuel duty and vehicle excise duty – are currently reserved. We will continue to press the UK Government for a fair and progressive future transport tax system that better incentivises the transition to zero-emission vehicles, reduces unnecessary journeys and raises revenues to fund policies to support a shift to more sustainable travel.

The Fair Fares Review, published on 22 March 2024, considered the range of discounts and concessionary schemes which are available across all modes including bus, rail and ferry.

On bus travel, the Review maintains existing eligibility to the National Concessionary Travel Schemes for those groups who currently benefit, which comprise over 2.3 million people across Scotland – a higher percentage than anywhere else in the UK and commits to development of a proposal for a bus flat fares pilot for an area-based scheme to provide flat fares on bus travel, or reduced fares on zonal integrated travel for consideration in future budgets.

In addition, the Review has recommended that further policy development work be undertaken by the Scottish Government to consider better targeting of public funds towards supporting access to public transport for those who need it most, including consideration of concessionary travel support for those experiencing financial poverty.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-26609 on 17 April 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-26336 on‎ 11 April 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government has invested significantly in vessels and key ports and harbours to support lifeline ferry connections. Shore side power upgrades across the lifeline ferry network are planned for the introduction of new and current vessels.

However, for those ports that are privately owned, decarbonisation measures or supporting infrastructure for vessels is a commercial decision for the port operators. The Scottish Government can work with ports owned by local authorities, and potentially Trusts, to explore potential solutions which are proportionate to the scale of operation and the vessels served.

The UK Government’s equivalent to Bus Services Improvement Partnerships (BSIPs) in Scotland are “Enhanced Partnerships”. Both models take a similar approach to partnership working, ensuring that operators and local transport authorities collaborate to achieve improved bus provision, but there are some key differences which reflect the Scottish context.

For instance, while both BSIPs and Enhanced Partnerships allow for the setting of requirements in respect of service frequency and timings, they take different approaches to addressing overprovision of services.

Also, BSIPs specifically allow for the setting of maximum fares which is not included in Enhanced Partnerships.

BSIPs schemes are required to include either facilities or measures to be provided by the Local Transport Authority (LTA); Enhanced Partnership schemes may include facilities or measures but these are not required.

Both BSIPs and Enhanced Partnerships have an operator objection mechanism based on the number of operators in an area and the registered distance they operate. The objections mechanism allows operators to object to the proposed making, variation or revocation of a plan or a scheme. The criteria for being excluded from the objection mechanism varies between the two models. The thresholds used to determine what constitutes a "sufficient number of persons" for the purpose of the objection mechanism also differs between the two models, to account for network variations across Scotland.

Furthermore, the Enhanced Partnership model allows, and in certain circumstances requires, the traffic commissioner to delegate to the LTA their registration functions as regards the services within the Enhanced Partnership scheme area. That is not included in BSIPs.

Since 2011 the Scottish Government has supported individuals and businesses across Scotland with over £220 million of interest free loans to support the transition to zero emission vehicles.

In addition, the Plugged-in Communities grant fund has provided community transport organisations with grants worth almost £4 million to procure zero emission vehicles.

The Scottish Government is currently considering the future of its EV incentive schemes, with no final decision yet made.

The Scottish Government has commissioned a study which will look at EV adoption to-date and will model future demand across a number of scenarios. This study will help to inform the ongoing development of Transport Scotland’s strategic framework for the adoption of electric vehicles (EV) and the development of charging infrastructure across Scotland.