Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government ran two rounds of the Scottish Ultra Low Emission Bus scheme in 2020/21, awarding a total of £39.6 million to support operators acquire new zero-emission buses, and £11 million to support operators install the necessary depot charging infrastructure. Phase one of the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund, has a total of £50 million available and is currently open for bids. The funding is to support the cost of both zero-emission buses and the associated charging infrastructure. Bidders can request up to 75% of the cost of battery-electric charging infrastructure, and up to 85% of the cost of hydrogen fuel-cell charging infrastructure.

No evaluation has taken place of the ScotZEB scheme as it is still open for applications until 4 November 2021.

The Scottish Government has established the Bus Decarbonisation Taskforce, comprised of leaders from the bus operating, bus manufacturing, energy and finance sectors, including representation from rural bus operators. At its first meeting the group set out its vision for a future where “Bus operators are exclusively running zero-emission battery-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell buses, and the bus sector provides an excellent service meeting passengers’ day-to-day needs”. The guiding vision informs all aspects of the Taskforce’s work. The Scottish Government is making £120 million available over the coming years to support operators in both urban and rural areas transition to zero-emission technology. The first phase of our Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund, worth £50 million, is currently open for bids. A second phase will be subject to review of the first.

It is an objective of the National Bus Travel Concession Scheme for Young Persons that bus operators are reimbursed for the costs of carrying concessionary passengers so as to leave them no better and no worse off through their participation in the Scheme. This objective should mean that there are not subsequent fare pressures on fare paying passengers as a result of the scheme.

We have worked with the Confederation of Passenger Transport to arrive at the reimbursement rates for the Scheme which seek to deliver this objective.

The new Scheme will be monitored closely in order to identify any significant adverse financial impacts, generally or for individual operators or groups of bus operators.

There are approximately 4,400 public service buses registered in Scotland, the majority of which will have to transition to zero emission buses in order to meet the 2023 ambition. The Scottish Government has already supported 272 zero-emission buses through the Scottish Ultra-low Emission Bus scheme 2020-21, which is over and above zero emission buses that have been deployed through other means.

The Scottish Government acknowledges that publication of this report has been delayed due to our pandemic response efforts. We will be publishing the Independent Expert Working Group report on 6 October 2021.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities, separate from the Scottish Government. As long as they act lawfully, it is up to each local authority to structure the council and form a decision making process that is appropriate for the individual local authority.

New regulations require that, where applicable, from November 2022 local authorities, along with other public bodies, report a target date for achieving zero direct emissions of greenhouse gases and targets for reducing indirect emissions of greenhouse gases. Overall, around 50% of reported public sector emissions are now covered by a net zero target that aligns with, or is more ambitious than, the 2045 national target.

Since 2015, local authorities, along with other public bodies, have had a duty to report on their compliance with the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, as well as their annual organisational emissions.

Further to the answer to question S6W-01792, the Scottish Government invests £862 million in general medical services, and a further £250 million in support of general practice through the Primary Care Fund.

Specific details of actual expenditure would require to be requested directly from individual NHS Boards .

As with the rest of the UK, fully vaccinated travellers returning to Scotland from countries other than those on the red list are required to take a day two test regardless of the length of their trip. The risk of transmission of the virus remains regardless of how long a traveller’s trip was for.

The Scottish Government has confirmed it intends to align with the UK Government’s proposals to relax the required standard of the day two testing.

Details on this are still being finalised and we will continue to engage with the UK Government ahead of confirmation.

Until these changes are confirmed, fully vaccinated travellers returning from countries that are not on the red list will be required to purchase a PCR test via CTM, the UK booking portal for international travel or from one of the private providers listed on the gov.uk website.