Seòmar agus comataidhean

Pre-meditated fraud in Scotland’s railways is defined by the Regulation of Railways Act 1889 (Section 5.3(a)), and Railway byelaws.

This is not pre-meditated fraud and would not be treated as such by ScotRail. Where there are no ticket issuing facilities at the station, tickets will be available for sale during or at the end of the journey. This is in accordance with the National Rail Conditions of Carriage, which apply to all train operating companies in the UK, and Byelaw 18 (Ticketless travel in a non-compulsory ticket area).

The current franchise agreement does not allow the franchisee to introduce penalty fares on either the ScotRail or Caledonian Sleeper franchises.

Under the National Rail Conditions of carriage customers who board at a station without ticket buying facilities will access the full range of fares inclusive of discounted tickets. Boarding a train where ticket buying options are in place and operational, customers give up the right to discounted fares as described above.

There are various pieces of legislation or Common Law with which rail companies and British Transport Police can seek to recover the value of the journey or to prosecute and recognise the dishonest actions of the errant passenger. This can be pursued through either Common Law Fraud means, or via railway-specific legislation and Byelaws (as below).

Common Law Fraud -

A catch-all offence, including attempts that can cover the same elements as the Regulation of Railways Act 1889 offences (see below) whilst recognising a level of felonious intent perhaps missing in some statutory offences.

Might recognise level of planning or activity involved in avoiding payment, or misrepresenting the extent of a journey paid for, the altering of tickets.

Higher tariff penalties including imprisonment.

Regulation of Railways Act 1889 - Section five creates the following offences

Travelling/attempting to travel on the railway without having previously paid the fare and with intent to avoid payment;

Having paid the fare for a certain distance, knowingly and willingly proceeding by train beyond that distance without paying the additional fare and with intent to avoid payment;

Having failed to pay the fare, giving a false name and address in reply to a request from an officer of the railway.

Railway Byelaws 2005 -

The byelaws cover various ticket offences whilst describing circumstances whereby a passenger may start a journey without a ticket (no provision of purchase/validation facilities etc).

The total number of ScotRail stations is 354 of which 214 are unstaffed. 149 of the 214 unstaffed stations do not have a ticket vending machine. In total 185 of 354 ScotRail operated stations do not yet have ticket vending Machines.

There are also ticket vending machines at non-ScotRail locations such as Glasgow Central high level, Edinburgh Waverley, Edinburgh tourist information, Edinburgh Airport and Glasgow Airport.

ScotRail will be providing details of its resource plans to provide evidence that all services are scheduled to be fully staffed; where any service is not covered, a summary of their plans to reduce instances of those services operating without a second staff member for all or part of their journey; and details of the local decision-making process when short notice absences occur. Once received, these plans will be reviewed to assess compliance with the franchise agreement.

ScotRail has recently confirmed that an additional ten ticket examiners have now been recruited to improve coverage of staff on electric service routes.

Supporting documentation is contained within SPICe - BIB number 58191

The reports provide details of every fault recorded during the first Quarter of 2016-17 for Service Schedules, the sub component fail, the train audited and a brief description of the actual fail.

Schedule 19 – Train seats, tables etc – (fails per carriage)

Schedule 20 – Train lights – per carriage

Schedule 21 – Train toilets – per facility

Schedule 22 – Train graffiti – per carriage

Schedule 24 – Train PIS – per carriage

Schedule 26 – Posters – per carriage

Schedule 27 – Train PA – per carriage

Schedule 28 – Train doors – per carriage

Schedule 30 – Seat reservations – per carriage

Fails are recorded against different inventories for each service schedule, these are provided above in brackets.

The supporting documentation is contained within SPICE BIB number 58192

The reports provide details of every fault recorded during the first Quarter of 2016/17 for Service Schedules, the sub-component fail, the station audited and a brief description of the actual fault.

Schedule 2 – Shelters – (fails per shelter)

Schedule 5 – CCTV and Security – (fail per station and at the control centre)

Schedule 7 – Station litter and Contamination – (fails per platform)

Schedule 12 – Station toilets – (fails per facility)

Schedule 16 – Help Points, Telephones and TVMs. – (fails per station)

Fails are recorded against different inventories for each Service Schedule, these are provided above in brackets.

The SQUIRE audits has shown the ScotRail has performed well in several areas over the first quarter of 2016-17. Where performance has fallen below floor level Transport Scotland have requested formal Remedial Action Plans from ScotRail which are intended to identify specific issues where they are failing to meet required benchmarks and for them to provide plans to ensure performance improves to an acceptable level.

The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 provides new rights for community bodies to participate in the design and delivery of public services and to request the transfer of public sector land and buildings. It does not provide a mechanism to transfer local bus services to community control.