Chamber and committees

We held down rail fare increases over a period of time. We have now removed peak rail fares, which also requires the application of subsidies.

We want more staff on our trains, because their presence is important for public safety. We also need more drivers, which will cost more money. The more drivers that we have, the more reliable our services can be. We are not currently seeing cancellations due to driver shortages, and we are now seeing record levels of driver recruitment, which improves services. Unlike in England, we do not have driver-only trains, and we want our rail staff to be visible. That means that we have services—

I am looking for the figures for active travel and sustainable—

We will certainly be maintaining our active travel allocation, but we are still to finalise how we are distributing that line of funding. We have a lot of plans ahead, as do local authorities, for tier 1 and tier 2. I will be happy to come back to you to give you certainty that the active travel element of that overall budget line is continuing in a positive way.

Do you want to come in on that, Catherine? Have you identified the budget line?

What we need to do for active and sustainable travel, bus infrastructure and bus support will need to continue, as we said in our earlier discussion on climate change. The trajectory of that will need to continue for this comprehensive spending review period and this carbon budget, but also thereafter and onward.

People and politicians can make a choice about whether having the Nairn bypass is more important than having the bus infrastructure fund, and they can play each of those off against each other. That is not our approach. We have to do both.

Yes. We would want and expect to see the purchase completed in the current financial year, so the funding for that is in this year’s budget, and thereafter there is on-going funding for our ports and harbours. Upon purchase, Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd will immediately want to do some work, including on the provision of ferries and then ports infrastructure, and thereafter, in future years, there will be provision.

It will be available. I am just saying that I do not have it, because I have not been a lead on that.

I am not responsible for how you feel and whether I give you confidence or not, but I can tell you that the Government has set out a realistic plan that can be delivered. Further incentives, on top of what the UK Government has already provided, will be required. You will know that the UK Government provides a discount for EV purchases. We have provided more than £220 million to start a major shift and encourage people to take up EVs. We need to give them confidence in the EV charging structure, which is why we already have one of the most extensive EV charging structures outside the south of England. The UK Government has introduced regulations for reliability so, in future, there will be penalties if EV chargers are not reliable. Our biggest challenge will be the rural and islands infrastructure. We have put in place £4 million this year for rural and islands infrastructure funding, which has been taken up widely. Next year, there will be £10 million to ramp that up even further.

We are putting measures in place that will help with take-up. We are looking at the detail of the incentive programmes and we think that we need measures that complement the UK Government’s discount. I know that cross-pavement charging has been of much interest to the committee. Three local authorities have taken up the pilot scheme. The draft guidance is with local authority transport directors for review and will be published early in 2026.

If the targets are not being achieved, adjustments may need to be made on the behavioural side of things, rather than with the physical take-up of vehicles. The vehicle emissions trading scheme and the zero emission vehicle mandates will be the single biggest things that will make the shift that we require. We are part of a four-nation agreement with the UK Government on those schemes.

You are asking whether I have confidence in what is being put forward. I do not know whether that means that you do not have confidence in what the previous United Kingdom Government did to set the targets, but it is up to you to reflect what you feel about that. All that I am saying is that there are measures in place to deliver the targets. If those targets are not met, we have a legal responsibility to adjust somewhere else. Within transport, there would probably be more of a shift on the behavioural side. Across Government, we would have to assess what is happening in housing and agriculture, as you will know from the committee’s evidence sessions to date.

Good morning. Thank you for the invitation to give evidence on the draft climate change plan, which sets out the actions that must be taken by 2040 to reduce emissions and meet Scotland’s first three statutory carbon budgets. As the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, I will discuss the transport sector’s contribution to the draft climate change plan. As the sector is Scotland’s largest emitting one, accounting for around a third of Scottish net emissions in 2023, decarbonising transport is critical to achieving our carbon budgets. As set out in the draft climate change plan, transport is expected to deliver a substantial share of the emissions reductions over the next decade.

We can take encouragement from the fact that key technologies for transport decarbonisation, such as electrification, are already here and are improving all the time. Nonetheless, substantial action will be required to deliver the transport emissions reductions that are envisaged in the plan. I want to be clear that we will deliver those in a way that is fair and part of a just transition.

Transport is a particularly challenging sector to decarbonise, because it is woven into many parts of people’s lives. It is shaped by how people live, work, learn and access goods and services. Therefore, decarbonising the sector will require a transformation of our economy and society that is underpinned by sustained investment, both public and private, in physical infrastructure. It will also mean the Government supporting people, communities and businesses to make more sustainable choices.

That is why public involvement and engagement are essential. Delivering a just transition to net zero by 2045 will rely on action from Government, businesses and households alike. I look forward to considering in further detail the consultation responses, and the reflections on transport within them, as part of the finalisation of the climate change plan. I also welcome the valuable scrutiny and input that the committee provides.

The draft climate change plan builds on the progress that we are making in the transport sector. It includes 28 actions for the sector, including measures that support modal shift through more sustainable forms of travel, as well as measures to encourage a more rapid transition to electric vehicles. Since the draft plan was published, we have continued to progress the delivery of policies that support those priorities. We have committed nearly £1.4 billion across the spending review period to low-carbon and sustainable travel, including active travel, bus infrastructure and support for zero-emission vehicles.

We recognise the importance of multiyear funding, particularly for infrastructure projects, and we are committed to providing as much certainty as possible while ensuring that our public finances remain on a sustainable footing.

On 1 April 2027, the Scottish Government will introduce an air departure tax, matching the United Kingdom Government’s air passenger duty rates and bands in the first year. We will then go further and introduce a private jet supplement within the air departure tax from 2028-29. We believe that those who choose to use private jets should pay higher rates of tax if they choose not to change their behaviour. That is in line with the polluter-pays principle and our progressive approach to taxation.

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Although we remain firmly committed to delivering net zero and transport’s contribution in that regard in the draft CCP, that also depends on actions from those across society, including businesses, householders, commercial investors and local authorities.

The draft CCP is rightly ambitious on the scale of the emissions reductions that are required from cars and vans. Meeting the ambitions will require a continued joint commitment from the Government and local authorities to align national action with accelerated programmes to roll out public EV charging points, with support for cross-pavement charging and investment in projects that enable people to leave their cars behind.

We also need the UK Government to play its part, especially by using its reserved powers to ensure swift strategic upgrades in electricity networks and swifter connections, working collaboratively with devolved Governments on regulatory approaches to phasing out fossil-fuelled technologies, and making public charging more affordable. We continue to urge the UK Government to take a four-nations approach to broader motoring tax reform that balances support for electric vehicle uptake with support for car use reduction. Importantly, we need the UK Government to provide consistent signals about the transition to net zero transport. Recent decisions on policies such as the vehicle emissions trading schemes and pay-per-mile charges on electric cars undermine the clarity and confidence that people need to take action. We ask that devolved nations be included at an early stage in the development of all policies on transport decarbonisation.

I look forward to discussing with the committee the draft climate change plan, which sets out a strong and ambitious pathway for transport’s contribution to achieving our first three carbon budgets.

That was the impression that I got from the Climate Change Committee, but, of all the areas that we are going into, I am more confident about this area, because you can see what is happening and look at the trajectory. However, we need to put as much focus on location as we put on volume, if that makes sense. Previously, it was all about the numbers—we are doing well with the numbers, and I feel reasonably confident about our progress in that regard—but, actually, the biggest challenge for Scotland will be to do with the location of the charging points.

That is exactly what we will be doing: we will be modelling what those incentives will look like. I have just secured the budget, we have just secured a spending review and we now have the draft climate change plan. A big focus, in aligning those, will have to be on EV incentives, which is why there is a substantial amount of funding in the budget precisely for that area of policy—not just for cars and vans, but for other modes as well.