As we have heard, congestion can happen for lots of different reasons, not least cross-border or freight traffic, although there can be other issues. It is probably best to address those questions to ScotRail directly.

That is an assertion of opinion, as opposed to—

Public ownership has been good news. I know that certain parties do not agree with that, and they are entitled to that opinion.

Yes.

The committee will know that the privatisation of the bus system took place in the 1980s and into the 1990s. The Scottish Government is not in control of the bus system. No changes were made during the 1990s and into the 2000s by the then UK Labour Government.

In 2019, we took a collective decision in the Scottish Parliament to make changes to the bus regulatory provision by providing different options, such as bus partnerships and franchises. As the committee will know, because you have gone through all the legislation, all the relevant statutory instruments have been put in place to allow local authorities or regional transport partnerships to take more control of our bus systems.

I do not know whether Fiona Brown can give us an analysis of people’s behaviour over that time; it will certainly be related to the number of routes that are available. For those private companies that are operating the majority of the routes, some routes are more profitable than others.

The experience of the pandemic had a very severe effect on bus patronage, more so than on other modes of transport. On the return to pre-pandemic levels, I am aware that the introduction of free bus travel for under-22s, particularly coming out of the pandemic, was seen as a helpful stabiliser to the income levels of bus companies that could otherwise have been in an even worse situation. I have reflected on the fact that, coming out of the pandemic, a lot of the bus patronage from older people was significantly reduced. We know that because we can see, particularly from concessionary travel use, that patronage is starting to increase, which is a good thing.

I have been cabinet secretary only for the past two years, and I am not quite sure what happened from 2007-08 onwards, whether it was more people increasing their use of cars or whatever. We should keep a close eye on the change in patronage. Finding ways to encourage people to use buses is important. Reliability and affordability are important. That is why the bus infrastructure fund, which is part of the active and sustainable travel funding, is important. We know when buses are reliable because there is greater communication now about when buses are likely to turn up through the apps and so on. People also have to wait for buses outside, and the bus infrastructure fund will be used by some local authorities for shelters and so on. That is particularly important in rural areas, where timings and so on might be variable.

I will ask Fiona Brown to say whether there is any analysis of what has happened over that extensive 20-year period.

You have just explained it. It is a vicious cycle where reduced patronage leads to fewer services and fewer services leads to reduced patronage. That needs to be addressed by local authorities and regional transport partnerships using the powers that they have to improve that in a more strategic way.

There is also a point about how the costs of services are kept low. Obviously, there are fuel costs, but there are also bus driver issues that I think still exist in some parts of the country, although they might not be as severe as they were perhaps two years ago. Bus driver availability also impacts different points on routes. We have to break out of that cycle.

Unfortunately, what we received from the UK Government’s spending review was not as positive as you are making out. In fact, the sum is negative in resource terms, particularly for transport, although it is positive for capital. Another concern about the UK Government spending review is that the health capital consequentials are negligible. We anticipate that the UK Government will finance health capital through resource funding, which has consequences for how we then manage our budget. I am trying to dampen your expectations.

As you clearly said, we have to engage not only with local and regional transport partnerships but with the bus sector and the private companies that operate our bus services. That engagement must take place so that we can deliver on the commitment that was made, which it is our intention to deliver.

Obviously, campaigners want to campaign—that is what they do. On the idea that the guidance is six years out of date, Monica, I think that you are perhaps stretching things. The legislation was passed by this Parliament—

No, there was not. The legislation that enabled franchising was passed by the Parliament in 2019, which was good. The statutory instruments that are required to put everything else in place have come through this Parliament and are already delivered. That is a good thing. With regard to the choices that are available to local authorities and regional transport partnerships, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, in particular, has done the work. At the last regional transport partnership meeting, I had a presentation from SPT on what it is proposing. It has agreement from all the local authorities, which is a strong position to be in, but it has to do that in a way that is robust and does not leave it in the situation that has happened elsewhere of there being a legal challenge from private operators that do not want to co-operate. That is a very real risk, and SPT is very conscious of what it needs to do. You and campaigners are criticising Strathclyde Partnership for Transport mistakenly when it has actually produced what people want it to produce, namely a blueprint to take things forward.