Chamber and committees

Discussions are ongoing so no formal impact assessment has been undertaken.

During the 2024 calendar year up until 10 October 2024, 88 Control Test Inspections have been conducted by Agricultural Wages Inspectors (AWI). This figure is in addition to 9 complaint cases raised directly by agricultural employees, that AWIs have investigated in 2024.

The vast majority of passengers travelling under the National Concessionary Travel Schemes behave appropriately. However, there is a minority of people, of all ages, who abuse their entitlement, including to commit offences, which can result in serious harm. That is not acceptable.

Transport Scotland is already working proactively with stakeholders to reduce antisocial behaviour on the bus network, including through changes to the application processes for the schemes and development of a behaviour code. Further work to develop additional preventative measures and sanctions is being progressed a priority.

Officials operate flexibly across a range of policies and programmes according to the specific requirements of their work at any given time. They do not, as a matter of course, record the proportion of their time spent working on particular project. It is therefore not possible to provide an expenditure figure regarding how much the Scottish Government has spent on work by officials involved with the development of Digital Waste Tracking.

As a four nations programme, staff resource contributing toward the development of Digital Waste Tracking is shared across UK Government and the devolved nations, with the UK Government, through Defra, providing the majority of resource and funding.

Zero Waste Scotland

We are not aware of any money spent specifically on Digital Waste Tracking within Zero Waste Scotland. A Zero Waste Scotland employee provided a response to the consultation on Digital Waste Tracking on behalf of the organisation in 2022. Some preparatory research went into the preparation of this response. Zero Waste Scotland does not have a record of any further staff allocation to the development of Digital Waste Tracking.

SEPA

SEPA staff work also flexibly across a range of priority projects and work areas, and do not, as a matter of course, record the proportion of their time spent working on different activities. Due to the cyber-attack SEPA experienced in December 2020, data is not available on resourcing of digital waste tracking work prior to December 2020. It is therefore not possible to provide a complete and detailed expenditure figure regarding how much existing SEPA resource has worked on Digital Waste Tracking.

Since December 2020 SEPA has used existing staff resources to provide:

• 1 Principal Scientist working on the project until June 2022
• 1 Senior Scientist working on the project until August 2024

Additional funding was secured from the Scottish Government to employ a User Researcher in 2022 at a cost of approximately £80k. The focus of the above-noted posts was on supporting the establishment of the UK Digital Waste Tracking project, engaging with industry and SEPA teams to define user requirements for the system

Since March 2022, additional funding from the Scottish Government has supported the recruitment of two fixed-term Senior Policy Officers to work on the project at a cost in the region of £530k. They are supporting both the UK Digital Waste Tracking project, further refining the detail of SEPA’s operational requirements, and preparing for agency readiness.

Management oversight for the project has been provided from existing resources, taking on average no more than the equivalent of 1 day per week. Given the complexity of SEPA’s interaction with the UK project and requirement for a robust governance framework for SEPA’s Digital Waste Tracking implementation project, a Senior Project Manager has also been provided to support Digital Waste Tracking from existing SEPA staff resource since May 2024.

A one year evaluation of the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel scheme was published in December 2023.

The findings of the review were generally very positive, indicating that it is beginning to deliver progress towards its longer-term objectives. While personal safety continues to be a concern across all modes of public transport, the study also showed that young people generally felt safer travelling alone, or at night, than they had expected to before the scheme launched.

Evidence from the evaluation is being used to inform the development of measures to reduce antisocial behaviour on the bus network and we are committed to ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the scheme.

The vast majority of passengers travelling under the National Concessionary Travel Schemes behave appropriately. However, there is a minority of people, of all ages, who abuse their entitlement, including to commit offences, and which can result in serious harm to bus employees and passengers. That is simply not acceptable.

Bus operators can already restrict access to their services in line with their own conditions of carriage and Transport Scotland is working with operators and other stakeholders to develop further sanctions and preventative measures including temporary suspension of concessionary cards, although this does have some complexities.

To date, over £63 million of funding has been allocated through the Recycling Improvement Fund (RIF) and the Fund’s Small Grant Scheme.

As noted in the answer to S6W-25444, a list of local authority projects allocated funding from the RIF is available on the Zero Waste Scotland website: www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/resources/recycling-improvement-fund

Additionally, a list of local authority projects allocated funding through the RIF Small Grant Scheme is available on the Zero Waste Scotland website: www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/resources/recycling-improvement-fund-small-grant-scheme

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

Our one year evaluation of the Young Persons Free Bus Travel Scheme, included the views of over 10,000 young people, their parents and input from children’s and families’ organisations. This evidence is being used to inform our work to ensure that appropriate options to prevent and tackle antisocial behaviour on the public transport network are available at the local and national level.

At a strategic level, the Independent Working Group on Antisocial Behaviour, has been established, bringing experts and practitioners together to consider a long-term strategic approach to antisocial behaviour. The transport sector recently fed into the Group’s engagement work which is expected to report its findings and recommendations by the end of 2024.

Transport Scotland is working with the Confederation of Passenger Transport to facilitate the sharing of best practice between bus operators, to ensure that the legal protections which allow drivers to refuse travel to passengers who breach conditions of carriage are well understood by operators, staff and passengers, and that bus drivers feel safe and supported to enforce these rules and to report unacceptable behaviour.

Wider engagement with other key stakeholders such as Police Scotland, local authorities and unions is also taking place as we seek to ensure that a full and effective range of preventative measures and sanctions are in place to tackle antisocial behaviour on the bus network.

Whilst the inherent environmental and social benefits of the TimberLINK service are recognised, increasing budgetary pressure has meant it is also important to explore opportunities to maximise benefits of public funding for all communities.

My officials are continuing discussions with the service provider and users of the TimberLINK service to explore options for the future of the contract.