Hansard

Today’s debate provides a timely opportunity to discuss the bus industry, assess its current status and consider what improvements can be made to ensure the delivery of bus services throughout Scotland. It is right that we do that on a regular basis.

Buses currently provide the key sustainable mass public transport, moving large numbers of people for a wide range of personal reasons at a reasonable cost. That contributes to the Government’s aims of enabling economic growth, improving social inclusion and accessibility, reducing emissions and improving air quality.

The number of bus passenger journeys made in 2009-10 amounted to 467 million, compared with 61.72 million journeys made by rail. Of those bus journeys, 151 million were made using the concessionary travel scheme: it was on that point that I tried unsuccessfully to intervene on Charlie Gordon and I will come back to it.

Bus company revenue from local bus services in 2009-10 amounted to £626 million, which reflects the substantial size of the industry in Scotland. The number of vehicle kilometres that were run in the commercial sector in Scotland in 2009-10 amounted to 300 million km, which represents 74 per cent of the total mileage for local services. That means that 79 million km of local services were subsidised by local authorities using their current powers to provide socially necessary services.

The Government’s role is to set the national policy framework and the strategic direction for bus services. The majority of bus services in Scotland are provided by the private sector operating in an open market. That encourages innovation, which can be difficult and at times risky, but can offer substantial rewards for the operators and the user.

I have been interested in the development of, for example, Lothian’s state-of-the-art fleet of buses that serve Edinburgh airport in direct competition with other modes of transport, in particular the private car. However, that level of service must be reflected in more areas—particularly in commuter areas—to encourage modal shift from the car.

As Charlie Gordon acknowledged, the Government has provided record levels of funding under the historic concordat with local authorities. We believe that local authorities are best placed to understand the transport needs in their areas. The development of a collaborative partnership between the public and private sectors is essential to the effective delivery of local services. That is particularly important during a period when resources become constrained, which is when creative and innovative solutions need to be devised to make the best use of more restricted resources.

Scotland is proud to have a manufacturer of high-quality innovative buses and to be the base for several world-class transport providers. The Government has made available a range of policy tools to local authorities to aid delivery of the bus services in their areas. They include punctuality improvement partnerships, statutory quality partnerships, park-and-ride schemes, traffic control orders, bus priority schemes, increased parking charges for private cars when that can lead to modal shift, increasing use of real-time information, tendering for socially necessary services, operating bus services under licence, and the provision of demand-responsive transport. That is not an exhaustive list of the policy options that we have used.

The important point is that a range of potential actions is available for local authorities to consider taking to meet the specific requirements and conditions in their areas. Many of the examples are delivered in Scotland, including travel planning that is being taken forward in Dundee as part of the smarter choices, smarter places initiative. The first statutory quality partnership in Scotland was put in place by Renfrewshire Council on 7 March, and another quality partnership is under development in Glasgow. A punctuality improvement partnership is in place in Dundee and it has resulted in changes in some bus priorities in the city.

Local authorities can operate services if appropriate via an operator’s licence. They can also operate local bus services under section 46 of the Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981, under which fare paying passengers can be carried on school bus services, or by using school bus vehicles when not in use to provide those services—I believe that Scottish Borders Council does that. The councils in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow are considering bus lane enforcement, which was recently put out for consultation. Community transport partnerships are evident in places such as Badenoch and Strathspey, where a vital service is provided for local people. That has demonstrated how voluntary local schemes can work successfully.

Many of the tools can be adapted to meet the diverse aims of different parts of the country and, in particular, many interventions can be made for relatively little cost. Adopting a range of interventions in partnership with operators and other local authorities can deliver a synergy or step change in service delivery. That cannot be achieved overnight, but it can be developed through effective transport planning implemented determinedly over a period of years. Individual actions can be straightforward, but the more difficult part is identifying a shared idea of success and developing plans in partnership to put in place the actions needed to deliver effective transport.

We must ask what the Scottish Government has done in particular to advance the agenda. We have worked with a range of stakeholders to develop a detailed suite of guidance to enable local authorities and operators to use the policy tools that I have mentioned. They include statutory quality partnerships, punctuality improvement partnerships, guidance on competition issues related to agreements, which Charlie Gordon mentioned—it is right that the Competition Commission looks at such matters; that is the remedy that is available—park-and-ride frameworks and bus information.

In addition to those tools—and this is crucial—the Government provides substantial funding to the bus industry. I was pleased that Charlie Gordon acknowledged that. In 2010-11, more than £240 million will be spent on bus services. That includes funding for the national concessionary bus travel scheme and the bus service operators grant.

Charlie Gordon would not take my intervention, which was to find out whether the Labour Party’s position is that espoused by Richard Simpson, who said that he would cut back on concessionary travel, in particular for some groups of pensioners. It would be interesting to find out when Charlie Gordon sums up whether that is the Labour Party position. For our part, there will be £240 million spent on bus services. That also provides funding to local authorities to subsidise socially necessary services and the bus route development grant.

The Scottish Government fully supports our national concessionary bus travel scheme, which provides free local and long-distance bus travel throughout Scotland to older people and people with disabilities. That is essential to promote social inclusion and a more active lifestyle by enabling people to use the bus network to access public services, facilities and social networks. This Scottish Government has no plans to change the current eligibility for the concessionary scheme—at least, no plans to restrict it, unlike, as we have heard, the Labour Party apparently has.