Chamber and committees

I have already indicated in my first answer the support that has been provided to local authorities, which includes funding to support maintenance of their existing chargers. However, the specific commercial arrangements for maintenance are a matter for negotiation between the local authority or other charge point owners and their maintenance providers. We expect local authorities to ensure that the obligations that they enter into through those agreements with third parties are robust and provide for appropriate performance measures and penalties.

I share Mr Bibby’s concern about the cuts that he referred to and others around the country. However, he is as well aware as I am that the deregulated model of bus service provision does not give Scottish minister power to intervene in specific services. What we have done, as I have already said, is set out new powers for local authorities to run their own bus services, and we have committed to the community bus fund, which will give them the resources to start using those powers.

I hope that Mr Bibby will join us in encouraging local authorities, including those in his region, to use those powers and to work with us as constructively as possible.

I completely agree with Gillian Mackay and I celebrate the success that Forth Bike has achieved. From discussions with stakeholders who are involved in delivering other affected schemes, I understand that urgent commercial discussions are on-going, including with the Canadian company that Gillian Mackay referred to. In this case, the partners—led by Forth Environment Link, which runs the Forth Bike scheme—have not contacted the Scottish Government or asked us to be involved in their discussions. I note that the Hi-Bike scheme was able to reopen earlier this week, and I hope that there will be a similarly positive outcome for Forth Bike and other schemes.

However, this demonstrates the complexity and challenges of setting up and running public bike hire services, and that is why the new fund that I referred to in my first answer, which will provide support for the sector, is going to be very important and beneficial.

Indeed. If I can have a tiny bit of time to make up for that intervention, I will be able to come to that in a moment.

I will briefly touch on comments that were made about community transport organisations, such as the Glenfarg Community Transport Group. Community transport makes a major contribution to reducing isolation and increasing community access for people who would otherwise be unable to use conventional bus services, or where suitable services are too limited. The Scottish Government provides funding to the Community Transport Association to develop and advise the sector in Scotland. Community transport is just one part of the answer to Katy Clark’s valid questions about public versus private provision. She assertively made the case for public ownership. Jeremy Balfour seemed to make the case equally clearly, but possibly accidentally. Either way, the Scottish Government’s policies and plans continue to develop to give local authorities the flexible tools that Paul Sweeney has rightly said they need in order to address transport issues.

Through the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, local transport authorities have the power to run their own bus services. Further secondary legislation to allow bus franchising and partnership working will be introduced later this year.

As there is time for one more intervention, I will be happy to take it.

We recognise that Scotland is not a single homogeneous entity; there are different needs in different contexts in various parts of the country, and we should take that into account. A point has also been made that, although buses that are run by the private sector might operate well in some places and badly in others, a great deal of their revenue and capital investment comes from the public purse. Mark Ruskell touched on conditionality and how we make sure that we get good value for public investment, which will be critical regardless of whether services are run by the public sector, the third sector or the private sector.

We encourage local authorities to consider the range of powers that exist for them under the 2019 act and to make sure that they are used fully so that they can deliver good-quality bus services for local communities. In addition, the community bus fund will provide support for local transport authorities to assess the options to improve services in their areas. We are working actively with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and other partners to develop the detail of that fund and to work on plans for its delivery.

During the debate, we have heard different views, but it is clear we have a shared understanding of the importance of having a modern, affordable and accessible bus service for all of Scotland. I thank Mark Ruskell for securing the debate in the chamber and members for their contributions.

I will give way briefly.

I am certainly eagerly awaiting it. It is very much part of the Bute house agreement that we negotiated. I am sure that the new transport minister will be keen to update Parliament on it as soon as possible.

The Scottish Government has a range of support in place. I mentioned the zero-emissions bus challenge fund of up £58 million to support bus operators of all sizes to work collaboratively to make transformational change towards zero emissions the default choice for Scotland’s bus services. Scotland’s zero-emissions fleet is double that of England, so I am proud to say that, by launching the second phase of the fund, we will continue to see that number grow.

As everyone in the chamber will appreciate, improving journey times and reliability will also contribute to high-quality bus services and encourage motorists to get out of their cars and on to the buses. That is why we are investing in bus priority infrastructure through our bus partnership fund. Through that fund, £26 million of bus priority funding has already been provided to eleven partnerships covering 28 local authorities. The initial funding is for implementation of bus priority measures and to support local authorities, working with their partners, to identify and develop more projects for delivery.

I thank all members who have contributed. In particular, I thank Mark Ruskell for bringing the debate to the chamber. I also thank him for opening his speech by expressing such kind remarks about Kevin Stewart. I am sure that he spoke for all members in the chamber.

I hope that members will understand that I am responding to the debate in lieu of a serving transport minister, and I hope that I will be forgiven if, on occasion, I have to pick up specific examples and pass them to the new minister, when one is appointed. I hope that members will take this opportunity to shape the new minister’s inbox before one has even been appointed by the First Minister and the Parliament.

We have to begin by acknowledging that all members recognise that buses provide an essential service. They not only give people access to the services and facilities that they need, but reduce our carbon emissions, thereby helping to tackle the climate emergency. Bus services play a vital role in supporting delivery of the vision that has been set out in the First Minister’s “Equality, opportunity, community: New leadership—A fresh start” prospectus.

I know that Kevin Stewart was delighted to speak at the Scottish bus week reception that Mark Ruskell mentioned. He met some of the “Love my bus” champions and was impressed by the appetite that was shown by everybody involved—in particular, those who had worked throughout the pandemic to keep essential bus services running safely—to innovate and respond to changing needs and demands.

While listening to some of the comments that were made during the debate, I was reflecting on people’s appetite for saying what they need from bus services. Way back in the early days of social media, when Twitter was a nice place to be instead of the bin fire that it has become, I set up a better buses campaign. The idea was to get people to share their experiences of the bus services. I could tweet when I was on my way to meet First Bus in Glasgow and, by the time I got to its offices to have the meeting, 20, 30, 40 or 50 people were telling me about their experience of the buses. They gave praise and criticism. Criticism came when the services were not good enough, and praise was often given when a driver went out of their way to be extra helpful. People care about this; they have an appetite for bus services that meet their needs.

Members across the chamber picked up on many local issues, including short-notice cancellations and cuts to services being made when—as Katy Clark rightly said—we should be talking about an appetite for expansion rather than firefighting cuts, pricing issues, signage and so on. Several members made important points about accessibility. Paul Sweeney’s speech focused on asylum seekers having access to buses and the transformational change that that could make.

Mark Ruskell called for conditionality in how the Scottish Government provides funding and support for bus services. I hope that the new transport minister will heed those comments and note how they have been made by members across the chamber. Mark Ruskell also recognised that Scotland already has one of the most extensive concessionary travel schemes. I hope that that is celebrated.

A couple of slightly more conceptual issues were raised. There was a question about personal preferences and whether people are too attached to their cars. Do we need to break that attachment or make bus services more attractive in a positive way? There might be a few irredeemable Jeremy Clarksons out there, but there is a great deal of evidence that many people who drive want to drive less, and that others who do not have a car want public transport and active transport choices that work for them.

That is why the Scottish Government is committed to a long-term sustainable future for bus services in Scotland. Indeed, in the current financial year, it is providing £420 million support for bus services and concessionary fares. We are into phase 2 of the zero-emission bus challenge fund.

The development of the project is designed to be in line with the transformation project—the wider transformation of the delivery of active travel. We know that we need to change those delivery models if we are going to have a way of delivering active travel that is on the scale and at the level of ambition that the budgets to come set out. Because of that, we have launched the transformation fund this year to trial the model of giving the money directly to local authorities.

Because of the way that we have developed the fund in this first year, we have removed match funding requirements as we know that they can make delivery difficult, particularly for smaller delivery partners. We have a great first group of projects that have been funded this year but, beyond that, the process has identified a pipeline of projects across Scotland that are worth nearly £700 million. I commend the genuine ambition that has been demonstrated by everyone who has developed them. The pipeline of projects stands us in great stead as it means that we have an exciting portfolio of projects that are ready to go and which match the scale of our budget commitments.

Because the real work of the fund is about turning ambition into delivery, I do not just want to see strategies; I want to see cycleways. I want to see the pipeline projects being turned into the fantastic environments for walking, wheeling and cycling that Scotland needs. The projects around the country that are included in today’s funding announcement will help to do that, but they are just the beginning. The fund will deliver a diverse range of active travel infrastructure in both urban and rural locations. By providing more safe and segregated infrastructure, the projects will help to remove one of the key barriers to greater modal shift towards active travel.

I could not lead today’s debate on walking, wheeling and cycling without reflecting on a huge event that will happen this summer. Scotland is in a unique position as the first country to host the UCI cycling world championships. You will be relieved, Presiding Officer—and I am sure that members will be as well—to hear that I am not the kind of person who will ever be seen in a Lycra skinsuit, hurtling round a velodrome. I am much more likely to be found going sedately along Sauchiehall Street dressed pretty much as I am today.

However, that difference captures a challenge and an opportunity that arise from the championships. The presence of world-class athletes from 13 disciplines and something like 1 million spectators converging on the country for two weeks will be a sporting spectacle, but I do not want it to leave a sense that active travel means only cycling or that cycling means only elite athletes using expensive specialist bikes.

Our task is to create a legacy that is about active travel as a way of going to work, to school or to the shops. It has been noticeable over decades that many of the countries with cycling superstars are also those with much more significant levels of everyday active travel.

We do not have to look far afield. Here in the UK, we have people such as Chris Boardman, former Olympic gold medallist and Tour de France yellow jersey holder, who now works as the national active travel commissioner with Active Travel England.

Here in Scotland, we have our own incredibly successful former professional cyclist in Lee Craigie, our ambassador for active travel. Lee is due to complete her term in that role in September. I express my gratitude for the contribution that she has made to our national conversation on active travel. Lee has been passionate, considered and thoughtful in her role—and, what is most important, she has consistently provided robust challenge to Government. I am sure that she is looking forward to supporting Scottish Cycling ahead of the UCI World Championships over the summer and continuing to show that cycling is for everyone.

Whether people are training for the world championships, cycling to school or work every day, or just heading out for a bit of exercise once in a while, they deserve to be able to do so with confidence and in safety. It saddens me to hear from people that they would love to cycle more and would love their children to walk or scoot to school but that they fear for their safety. Yet again, this week, there have been tragic reports of deaths and injuries on our roads. Far too many people have lost friends and family members who were simply walking, wheeling or cycling to get around. One death or serious injury on our roads is one too many, so I say again that, as a nation, we still have a great deal more to do. We can, must and will do better.

We are putting in place the right building blocks: a record level of investment of nearly £190 million this year; the even higher commitment of £320 million next year; the new active travel transformation fund of £20 million, which I have announced today; the commitment to getting results from our policy not just on active travel but on transport as a whole, as well as on planning, economic development, procurement and more; and the recognition that we get the best results when we work together—national Government, local government, regional transport partnerships, the third sector and, above all, the communities that give leadership and bring forward their ideas for change. The Scottish Government, will continue to make that sustained investment, working together to achieve an active travel transformation for Scotland.

I move,

That the Parliament believes that active travel can bring significant benefits for people’s health, the economy and the cost of living, and is critical for tackling the climate emergency and delivering on the commitment to reduce car kilometres by 20%; welcomes the Scottish Government's record budget for active travel in 2023-24; recognises that this is by far the highest investment in active travel per head across the UK; welcomes the new and additional £20 million Transformation Fund going directly to delivery partners to deliver new infrastructure at pace; commends the work of local authorities, regional transport partnerships and active travel delivery partners in turning that record level of investment into changes on the ground; notes the publication of the new Cycling Framework in supporting the wider 2030 Active Travel Vision, where walking, wheeling and cycling are the most popular modes of transport for shorter everyday journeys, and looks forward to the opportunity presented by the UCI Cycling World Championships coming to Scotland in August 2023 to encourage more people to choose active travel.