Chamber and committees

The ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) operator is contractually obliged to continually improve the quality of the service for drivers. This includes a necessary shift from monthly billing to pay-as-you-go payment for charging using the CPS card or mobile app. This enables an experience akin to how drivers pay for petrol and diesel at traditional forecourts and has been widely welcomed by users. This has necessitated the migration to a new payment service provider (PSP).

Transport Scotland officials and the CPS operator have held regular discussions about future enhancements, including the planned roll-out of the new PSP. Following the launch of the new PSP on 24 April this year, the CPS operator immediately notified Transport Scotland about the emergence of a technical issue which impacted less than 1% of CPS users. The CPS operator has provided regular briefings to Transport Scotland on the cause, impact and corrective actions, including advanced notice of the resolution that was implemented on 10 May.

The CPS operator will provide Transport Scotland with a detailed report on the issue, Transport Scotland officials will also meet senior managers from the CPS operator to discuss key lessons learned.

The current ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) framework agreement is due to end February 2025 with the call-off contract running until mid-2026. The framework agreement, which includes provisions for the circumstances in which early termination would be appropriate, have been published on Transport Scotland’s public facing website: ChargePlace Scotland Framework Agreement 2021 | Transport Scotland.

The Scottish Government has funded pilots of emergency department opt-out blood borne virus testing in three areas – NHS Lothian, NHS Grampian and NHS Highland. The funding allocations followed a call for bids which was open to all territorial NHS Boards, including NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. It is important that decisions about any further expansion are based on the best available evidence. The Scottish Government will use evaluation data from the three pilot projects, combined with other evidence, to determine whether further roll out would be acceptable, deliverable and cost-effective in Scotland.

The Smarter Choices, Smarter Places (SCSP) programme was a long-established cornerstone of the way the Scottish Government approached promoting the popular shift to more active and sustainable ways of making our everyday journeys.

With its origins in the 2006 National Transport Strategy commitment to test and explore “sustainable travel demonstration towns and villages, to reduce car use and promote cycling, walking, home zones, tele-working and pedestrianisation”, the SCSP programme was announced jointly by the Scottish Government and COSLA in early 2008. The term ‘smarter choices’ was itself coined in the title of an extensive “Smarter Choices – Changing the Way We Travel” report conducted by a group of academic experts and published by the UK Department for Transport in 2004.

Seven pilot projects ran for three years from 2009 to 2012, and following their success, the programme was continued and then expanded nationally, being delivered on Transport Scotland’s behalf by ‘Scotland’s national walking charity’ Paths for All, from 2015. SCSP continued to adapt as time went on, and as of 2023, it consisted of three funding and support packages: The core 'Local Authority Fund' allocated on a per capita basis to councils, an 'Open Fund' launched in 2018 to support public and third sector community-level projects, and an 'Active Nation Fund' launched in 2023 to support larger more strategic multi-regional projects.

Paths for All managed the funding bid, allocation, and monitoring and evaluation process across the entire programme, providing a wealth of expert help and advice to the beneficiaries of all three funds, and facilitating knowledge and best practice sharing nationally through an SCSP Network. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Paths for All and all of the staff who have worked on the SCSP programme since it's inception and to this day, for their passion, dedication, and hard work in the service of a more sustainable Scotland.

Some twenty years on from the publication of the original 'Smarter Choices' report, and after nearly ten years of Path for All's stewardship of SCSP as a national programme, we continue to adapt with the times. This year marks the start of a new chapter in the way we seek to achieve these outcomes. The stark reality is that despite the stalwart efforts and proven individual successes of SCSP projects, and the many other active and sustainable travel initiatives that we have supported, the national level figures across walking, wheeling, and cycling for the last decade and beyond have remained stubbornly consistent.

Meanwhile, this government's ambition for active travel has never been greater, nor our acknowledgement of the vital role it has to play in keeping us physically fit and mentally happy, with cleaner air and safer streets for everyone. Not to mention, of course, helping tackle the climate emergency for the sake of our children. And knowing the social and economic dividends that these outcomes deliver, we have concentrated our efforts: Investment in active travel infrastructure and promotion stands at record levels, over five times the amount this year than it was in 2012.

In this context, we require a new model of programme delivery that can take this level of ambition and transform it into the change that people want and expect to see. That's why we took the decision, as difficult as it may have been for such a well-established programme, to discontinue SCSP, as part of a much larger transformation of active travel delivery across both infrastructure and behaviour change.

Our new ‘Active Travel People and Place’ programme is a fresh approach whereby budget which was previously grant funded from the centre of government directly to national third sector delivery partners, has instead been entrusted to Scotland's seven Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs). RTPs have in turn worked with their respective local authorities to design their own tailored programmes of behaviour change initiatives under a national policy framework. Coupled with our new delivery model for active travel infrastructure, our vision is for more control and autonomy at regional and local levels, with an emphasis on the important link between behaviour change and infrastructure in achieving modal shift.

In discontinuing the SCSP Local Authority Fund we have retained core funding to councils through a separate ‘Local Authority Direct Award’, which in the spirit of the Verity House Agreement, lessens administrative burdens around application and reporting. In discontinuing the SCSP Open Fund we have retained interim support for community projects through a ‘Community Projects Transition Fund’, with Paths for All working with RTPs on capacity and capability building and future delivery model design. In the creation of the Active Travel People and Place Programme overall, to a significant extent the RTPs have chosen to retain the services of our established third sector delivery partners.

Our position on the impact of these reforms is that they will help us rise to the challenge of meeting our ambitions, delivering active travel services that are better aligned with regional transport strategies and infrastructure, that better meet the needs of local communities, and that significantly increase the national-level numbers of active and sustainable everyday journeys.

The Scottish Government expects all NHS Boards to ensure the SHTG recommendations on PLGF-based testing published on 23 March 2023 are implemented effectively and consistently. However, NHS Boards have reported that there are some capacity and infrastructure challenges to effectively implement their plans.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care wrote to NHS Boards on 22 May, World Pre-Eclampsia day, to re-emphasize the importance of PLGF-based testing and to request an update on implementation plans within boards.

Scottish Government recognises that Citizens’ Assemblies are an important and effective method to involve the public in policy and decision making.

Our longer term commitment to using Citizen’s Assemblies remains unchanged, and any Citizens’ Assembly will be targeted to help tackle some of Scotland’s most difficult issues.

As outlined in our response to the Institutionalising Participative and Deliberative Democracy working group, to ensure any future Citizens’ Assemblies build upon the learnings of previous Citizens’ Assemblies delivered in Scotland, a key first step in our approach will be to undertake an impact assessment of the Citizens' Assembly of Scotland and Scotland’s Climate Assembly.

Budget to deliver participatory work is dispersed across policy areas, which currently allocate funds and undertake activities as required. The financial situation facing the Scottish Government continues to be the most challenging since devolution, and we set out the limitations that budget constraints have posed to the delivery of Citizens’ Assemblies to the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions committee in October 2023 (see page 4, paragraph 6).

We will update Parliament in due course when we arrange for the next Citizens’ Assembly to be convened.

The Scottish Government responded to the recommendations of the 2018 EHRC report on Housing and Disabled People at that time. In that response, we set out the actions being taken forward to increase access for disabled people to accessible and adapted housing.

In 2019 we issued statutory guidance to local authorities requiring tenure neutral wheelchair-accessible housing targets must be included within Local Housing Strategies. There has been good progress on this and from information collated from 2024-2029 Strategic Housing Investment Plans, 30 of the 32 local authorities have in place wheelchair housing targets for the delivery of affordable homes.

Then in 2020, the Relevant Adjustments to Common Parts (Disabled Persons) (Scotland) Regulations came in to force. These regulations make it easier for disabled people to make adaptations to the common areas of their property.

The Scottish Government is also increasing the supply and choice of accessible homes. Since 2007, we have supported delivery of 128,285 affordable homes, over 90,500 of which were for social rent.

We publish annual out-turn reports which set out the form, locations and types of social and other affordable housing we have delivered including specific annexes that cover accessible housing.

Wherever possible, all affordable homes are built to Housing for Varying Needs accessibility standards. In 2022-23, 98% of new build homes delivered by housing associations and councils, where information was returned on Housing for Varying Needs, met that standard.

During the second half of 2023, we consulted on proposals to enhance the accessibility, adaptability and usability of Scotland’s homes. The consultation closed on 21 December and the responses to the consultation are being analysed and a report will be published in due course.

We are also progressing a review of the current housing adaptations system which will make recommendations on how best to improve and streamline the system.

The installation of cross-pavement solutions for on-street Electric Vehicle charging has the potential to provide those without off-street parking access to more affordable domestic tariffs, whilst reducing trip hazards posed by loosely trailed cables. The market for cross-pavement charging solutions is at a relatively early stage, however, there are already a variety of solutions that have been trialled by local authorities across the UK, including in local authorities in Scotland. The decision to allow or reject the installation of a cross-pavement solutions on the public highway ultimately rests with local authorities and cross-pavement charging solutions may not be the suitable in all circumstances. Transport Scotland is working closely with the Scottish Road Works Commissioner and Scottish local authorities to better understand the issue and how best to support local authorities as the market develops with actions incorporated within the Vision Implementation Plan.

No contractor has yet been appointed for the Aberdeen – Central Belt Service Improvement Project as the project is still in the design stage. The programme for implementation, and therefore contracting, of the scheme remains under consideration. I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-26336 on 11 April 2024.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

In accordance with the ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) contract, the CPS operator will provide Transport Scotland with a written report outlining the cause, impact and actions take to rectify the issues which recently affected less than 1% of CPS members. The report will also detail steps that will be taken to mitigate the risk of future occurrences. Transport Scotland officials will meet senior managers from the CPS operator to discuss key lessons learned.