I wrote to the committee because I was conscious that I was appearing today and I wanted to give some indication of where things are with the interim evaluation. I confirm that the interim evaluation has been published today on Transport Scotland’s website—I wrote today, or last night, to ensure that the committee is aware of that. I understand that there is a members’ business debate on the topic this week, too. For that debate and for my appearance today, it was important that the committee be informed.

I assure Monica Lennon that, if she looks on the Transport Scotland website—is it live, Alison?

“ScotRail Peak Fares Pilot— Interim Evaluation” is live now.

We need to continue with the evaluation. It has been affected by the pre-election period: we wanted to do a public survey in June: it will now happen in July and will inform decision making. In the meantime, the information in the interim evaluation and my letter to the committee will give you a bit of advance notice on what is likely to be in that report.

I am not saying that I am confident that it will be achieved. It will be a challenge—I am not saying that it will be an easy thing. In the past two weeks I have had a discussion with some members of the Climate Change Committee on what could be done on such issues.

I stress that taking such an approach should go hand in hand with improving public transport. If we want people to switch from car use to public transport, even if it is for one day a week or whatever, that is an equivalent factor in the balance. It is also important to consider whether we always have to use the car. There is a big challenge for all of us in examining our car ownership. I know that if, for example, people have young kids and have to go to lots of different places, having the use of a car for small journeys is helpful. However, in general, we want to encourage more active travel through walking and cycling. As my family and I did, people need to reconsider whether they need two cars or just one and whether that will help them to use public transport or share transport. There are also car clubs and so on.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at the launch of an EV charging facility for the use of Enterprise car club members. There are therefore different ways of reducing car kilometres. It is not just about aiming for the official international benchmark. At policy and personal levels, we must all consider how we travel and reduce our car use. In a country like Scotland, we will always have to have some car use in particular areas. However, the availability of EV charging facilities is a big challenge. That is why, as part of our focus on the climate change plan, expanding the availability of such charging, particularly in strategic areas and rural areas, will be a priority for the Scottish Government.

Alison, do you want to come in?

I am not in a position to give that date, but I am happy to follow that up with you. There are probably not that many things that I have offered to follow up with the committee, but that might be helpful. I will set out the stages and the timing. Because work on the medium-term and long-term solutions is being done at the same time, there is an interdependency; that is all set out in the timetable on the website that I referred to.

Perhaps we can take that in stages. Our 2045 carbon emissions target absolutely still stands, and it is the route map to it that will be altered—I understand that the committee recently discussed that with the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy, Màiri McAllan.

It is absolutely essential that we expand the EV charger network. One of the reasons why we had the climate change plan was to uprate the EV roll-out. One of the first things that I did when I came back into Government as Minister for Transport was to go to Dundee to launch our EV vision. We have 5,000 public sector charge points and we are on target to deliver on the vision of 6,000 public EV charge points by 2026. The Scottish Government’s investment in EV charging is in addition to the 20,000 domestic and business charge points funded by the Scottish Government.

It is quite clear that the development of EV charging will be through a public-private partnership, which a lot of local authorities have included in their plans. In 2023, the private sector invested between £25 million and £35 million in public EV charging in Scotland. This year, the Scottish Futures Trust anticipates an investment of between £40 million and £50 million.

Later this year, we will publish the implementation plan, which will be informed by all the local authority plans. To date, we have invested more than £4 million to help local authorities develop the public EV charging strategy and plans that you were referring to. Scotland’s 32 local authorities have all submitted their plans to Transport Scotland. We anticipate that another £7 million will be invested in that EV infrastructure funding as a result of what is happening in relation to the plans, so I can reassure you that we see this as a major step forward.

Reflecting again on my discussions with members of the Climate Change Committee just the other week about the anticipated target of 24,000, I can say that they are as interested in making sure that, strategically, those charge points are all in the right places as they are in the target number. For us, the extrapolation of 24,000 was on a UK basis. However, in terms of looking at Scotland’s geography—we make up a third of the UK landmass—where we have the charge points is going to be as important as the number that we have. I am acutely aware of that.

That is quite a long answer, especially when the convener was wanting a break, but I hope that it gives you the up-to-date position. We will absolutely be pressing ahead and I am very pleased that all the local authorities have submitted their plans.

It is important to state that that is our commitment, although there are challenges with that. We should also be clear that the 20 per cent target relates to car kilometres. It is about encouraging people who currently use their car from Monday to Friday, to perhaps take public transport, such as the train, one day a week, to encourage that reduction.

It is likely that more progress will be made in our cities, and Glasgow and Edinburgh have a 30 per cent reduction target. The issue is how we make that shift in relation to the switch to electric vehicles. I know from talking to Councillor Gail Macgregor that she is a big champion of that policy, and we are keen to publish our joint report with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities on how that can be done. We will do that by the autumn, as we have indicated in the climate change plan.

The issue that Councillor Macgregor reiterates is about behaviour more generally, across all car use, to encourage people to get into different habits and behaviours. As for demand management, there will be mechanisms that councils can use, at their instigation, such as those that the Labour-Liberal Democrat Executive passed way back in the early 2000s.

I will try to answer the question, but I remind everyone that we are in the pre-election period and that whatever happens will depend on the UK Government election. I expect that whoever will form the next UK Government will introduce rail reform legislation.

On the proposed establishment of Great British railways, I would just note that on the day that the election was called, just before I went over to Arrochar for the meeting about the Rest and Be Thankful, I was giving evidence to the select Transport Committee at Westminster on what was the Rail Reform Bill. I think that all political parties at UK level are interested in having an integrated rail body. Alex Hynes, who previously headed up Network Rail and ScotRail, was seconded to take that forward. Obviously, we will have to wait to see what happens after the election.

I am sure that the committee clerks can liaise with the Transport Committee on this, but I and Huw Merriman, who was a UK transport minister at the time, were the last to give evidence on the matter, and my understanding is that the committee was going to produce a curtailed report. The evidence that I gave will be on the record, as will Mr Merriman’s. I understand that the Labour Party, too, has made statements on the matter. I do not want to go any further than that.

What I will say—I have written this in previous correspondence—is that I do not think that the devolved areas were being protected as much as they could and should have been protected. I will remind the clerks about this, but I think that I have already given the committee copies of my correspondence to the UK Government on my concerns about the bill. That said, I am probably skating into territory that I should not skate further into.

Let us see where we get to in terms of the process.

The Scottish Government’s preference has always been for greater devolution of rail powers to Scotland.

It would probably be wise, convener, to return to that question when we know the formation of the new UK Government and what will happen to the bill. However, I suspect that, whatever party forms the UK Government, the principle of that bill will advance in some shape or form.

I have reflected on that point previously. There are changes in public transport use for both bus and rail: weekends are becoming more popular for leisure reasons, and we have had a period with lots of storms, which can affect people’s use. We anticipated that spring might have been a better time to assess where things were, which is why we extended the pilot to March.

As you read the report, you will see that the figures are slightly down for the spring period. We are not quite sure whether that is weather related—we do not know and I do not want to assume that—but you will see that in the full report. In the meantime, I ask Fiona Brown to answer the question about when to survey people and why.