Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-26609 on 17 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 .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-26609 on 17 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

The Scottish Government has invested over £65 million to support the installation of over 2,800 public EV charge points across Scotland as part of the ChargePlace Scotland(CPS) EV charging network. As a direct result, Scotland has over 4,880 public EV charge points and the best provision of public charge points per head of population of anywhere in the UK, outside of London, and the most rapid charge points per head of population of any region in the UK.

Transport Scotland has also provided £5.7 million to support the installation of 18,861 domestic charge points and £10.8 million to support 1,432 higher powered workplace charge points, complementing the public network.

In addition, the Scottish Government published the Vision for Scotland’s Public Electric Vehicle Charging Network last year, highlighting the need for a transition towards a public charging network that is largely financed and delivered by the private sector. This work is being supported through the £60m EV Infrastructure Fund(EVIF), where we are supporting local authorities across Scotland to work with the private sector to lever in the private investment needed to develop the EV charging network in Scotland at the pace and scale required to meet future demands.

The Scottish Government, working alongside the UK Government and the other devolved administrations, introduced the Vehicle Emissions Trading Schemes at the start of 2024. These schemes put legal obligations on car and van manufacturers to sell new zero emissions vehicles each year, ramping up to 80% of all new cars sold, and 70% of new vans, being zero emissions by 2030. At the same time, the schemes encourage car and van manufacturers to drive down the emissions of their new non-zero emissions car and van vehicles.

As set out in the Climate Change Committee’s 2023 report to parliament, decarbonisation of heavy-duty vehicle fleets in Scotland will depend on UK-wide markets. The Scottish Government continues to engage with its UK counterparts on regulatory approaches to the phase out dates for petrol and diesel heavy duty vehicles through the Inter-Ministerial Group on transport and associated official-level, UK-wide working groups that have recently been established on freight decarbonisation. The Scottish Government also participates in the UK Freight Energy Forum, which involves fleet operators, energy network operators and others on decarbonisation of the sector.

In 2022 the Scottish Government established the Zero Emission Truck Taskforce, which brought together key representatives from the logistics, manufacturing, energy and finance sectors to shape the pathway to the decarbonisation of Scotland’s road freight and logistics sector. The taskforce produced a Heavy Goods Vehicle Decarbonisation Pathway for Scotland, published on 19 March 2024 and is available on Transport Scotland’s website. That pathway and the evidence that supported it has been shared with counterparts in the UK Government to inform the regulatory options relating to zero emission heavy duty vehicles.

The Community Bus Fund is intended to support local transport authorities to improve local public transport in their areas. This can include exploring the full range of options set out in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, including Bus Services Improvement Partnerships.

In 2023-24, the Community Bus Fund provided £750,000 in resource funding for transport authorities to complete initial feasibility and preparatory work required for the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019. A further £5 million of capital funding was allocated to local authorities, with greater levels of support for rural areas facing different challenges to those in cities.

The Scottish Government will develop implementing actions to deliver our Vision for Scotland’s Public Electric Vehicle Charging Network in response to the UK Climate Change Committee (CCC) recommendation.

The implementing actions will be developed in collaboration with key stakeholders who share responsibility for delivering public EV charging across Scotland to deliver the right charge points in the right locations to meet the needs of communities across Scotland, including rural and island communities.

Transport Scotland, through its four Trunk Road Operating Companies and five Design Build Finance Operate (DBFO) Concessionaires, is responsible for the management and maintenance of the strategic trunk road network, including motorways. Transport Scotland specify requirements for regular surveys and inspections to ensure that the trunk road network is safe and fit for purpose, and to provide appropriate information to support maintenance decisions. Transport Scotland commission contractors to undertake annual machine-based surveys on trunk roads using specialist vehicles to gather information on the surface integrity of the road; the friction characteristics of the surface; and the structural capacity (strength) of the underlying road construction. This is supplemented with a series of targeted inspections to obtain specific information about the road asset undertaken by Operating Companies under the term maintenance contract. The combined information is used to determine future maintenance programmes and investment requirements.

In addition Operating Companies have a contractual obligation to inspect the trunk road network at 7-day intervals. These inspections are primarily to identify defects that require prompt attention because they present, or could present, an immediate hazard to road users. The Scottish Government fully funds the inspection and repair of all such defects, and the term maintenance contract sets out strict timescales for their repair.

With regard to local roads, local authorities have a duty under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 to manage and maintain local roads in their area and duties under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to secure the expeditious, convenient and safe movement of traffic. Neither the Scottish Ministers nor the Scottish Government would become directly involved in their day-to-day duties.

Since 2011, Transport Scotland has invested over £65 million, on behalf of Scottish Ministers, to support the installation of over 2,800 public EV charge points across Scotland as part of the ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) EV charging network. These public EV charge points are owned and operated by over 400 separate public, private and third sector organisations.

As a direct result, Scotland has over 4,880 public EV charge points and the best provision of public charge points per head of population of anywhere in the UK, outside of London, and the most rapid charge points per head of population of any region in the UK.

Overall reliability across the CPS network is typically very good, with all charge points on the network up and running around 95-98% of the time each month . The reliability of EV charge points will soon be regulated following the introduction of new UK-wide Public Charge Point Regulations , which were introduced under powers reserved to the UK Government, and came into force in November last year. All public EV charging networks in Scotland must comply with these new regulations, with the charge point owner and operator responsible for compliance.

The Scottish Government launched a new Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund (EVIF) in January 2022. Through a partnership approach with Scotland’s local authorities, it aims to leverage £60m of public and private funding to double the network to 6,000 charge points by 2026. A greater commercial sector involvement underpinned by fair, transparent pricing will help to drive up reliability standards across Scotland and encourage more drivers to make the switch to EV

The amount of £58,408.55 is in relation to 2022-23 only. In 2021-22 the equivalent amount was £31,663.82.2021-22 – a total of £31,663.82 related to job-related and professional training courses. These included:

1. Health &Safety Training Courses

The amount of £48,792.82 is in relation to 2022-23 only. In 2021-22 the equivalent amount was £49,383.28.

2021-22