Question reference: S6W-26364
- Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 21 March 2024
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Current status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 4 April 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much of the budget investment allocated for active travel was spent, in each financial year from 2020-21 to 2023-24.
Answer
The Active Travel Budget is an allocation set within the overall Transport Budget for Scotland. There has been an annual increase to the Active Travel budget each year from 2020 to 2023. This reflects our commitment to increase walking, cycling, or wheeling for everyday journeys.
Active Travel investments encounter challenges such as planning, geographical issues, and supply chain availability that can result in an underspend or a programme being adjusted midterm. Planning, forecasting, and grant management processes are utilised to mitigate the risk of underspend whenever possible. The Active Travel programme, as with many Government investments, was significantly impacted with restrictions under the COVID19 response, adaptations to projects has to be made to allow for continued delivery, and in some cases work was paused. The breakdown of allocations and spend for the years 2020-21 to 2022-23 is as follows;
Year | Allocated Budget | Allocated from Budget | Spend Achieved |
2020-21 | £100,500,000.00 | £100,500,000.00 | £75,145,156.46 |
2021-22 | £116,761,432.82 | £116,171,826.69 | £88,744,213.02 |
2022-23 | £149,977,000.00 | £149,683,003.69 | £139,918,607.50 |
2023-24 as a financial year is not complete. The following is therefore indicative and may adjust once the year end process completes.
Year | Allocated Budget | Allocated from Budget | Spend Forecast |
2023-24 | £189,210,000 | £183,644,079.00 | £173,782,079 |