Question reference: S6W-13426
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 21 December 2022
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Current status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 19 January 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many children in the (a) Midlothian, (b) East Lothian, (c) Scottish Borders, (d) Dumfries and Galloway, (e) South Ayrshire, (f) East Ayrshire, (g) North Ayrshire and (h) South Lanarkshire Council area are eligible to receive a free bicycle, and, of those, how many (i) have received and (ii) are yet to receive a free bicycle.
Answer
We do not have the information requested as we are still in the testing and policy development phase of the free bikes programme. In this government’s first 100 days, we established six pilot schemes with a further four running by the end of 2021. The pilot programme will run until the end of March 2023, testing different approaches and delivery models, including eligibility, to help inform a national rollout.
We do not record data on bike numbers at local authority level. However, considering bikes issued and associated training and promotion sessions, free bikes activities have taken place in 20 of 32 local authority areas. The pilots are running across a range of locations including in urban, rural and island communities.