Chamber and committees

I am sorry that Forth Bike has ceased to operate. We provided £181,000 of pilot funding to Forth Environment Link when it launched in 2019. That and other schemes have found themselves in similar positions as a result of issues that face Bewegen Technologies.

Enabling people to access bikes in an affordable and easy way is vital to reducing health and income inequality, and making communities safer and more pleasant. We are working with Cycling UK to establish a new £1 million fund for non-ownership cycle options—to support start-up and existing cycle schemes—which we expect to launch this summer.

It is disappointing to see services cuts in Renfrewshire. As Mr Bibby is well aware, since the deregulation in the Thatcher era, Scottish ministers do not have the power to intervene over specific bus services.

We remain committed to supporting the sector, with £421 million allocated in 2023-24 for bus services and concessionary fares. We have delivered powers for local authorities to run their own services, which sit alongside existing powers to subsidise services. We are working with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities on the community bus fund, and we encourage operators and local authorities to collaborate for the benefit of passengers.

Last year, the Scottish Government published “A Network Fit For The Future: Draft Vision for Scotland’s Public Electric Vehicle Charging Network”, envisaging a well-designed, comprehensive network that works for everyone. Our electric vehicle infrastructure fund aims to enable £60 million of public and private investment to double the size of the public charging network to at least 6,000 charge points by 2026.

Transport Scotland has considered the range of skills that are required for the maintenance of the charge points. The lack of formal recognition of qualifications has been identified as a barrier and will be assessed as part of a review within the update of the “Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan 2020-2025”. Access to training across Scotland is critical, and Transport Scotland has been investing in mobile equipment for colleges to support training in more remote areas and support a just transition to net zero.

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.

Through the grant funding that the Scottish Government has provided to local authorities to purchase warranty and maintenance agreements, we expect suppliers to honour their contractual obligations so that, when a charge point is broken, it is fixed on time. Local authorities that own EV charge points, including those on ChargePlace Scotland, are responsible for procuring chargers, selecting installers and agreeing appropriate maintenance packages with their chosen supplier. Once their initial servicing packages have expired, they may choose to extend agreements with their supplier or to seek alternative contractors.

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.