Meeting of the Parliament 17 May 2023
I welcome the debate on the motion. Mr Rowley said that he wanted a consensual debate, but his opening remarks did not sound consensual at all.
However, I agree with Mr Rowley that reliable, accessible and affordable public transport is a lifeline service for many people across Scotland, and that is the vision in the new “Equality, opportunity, community: New leadership—A fresh start” policy prospectus that the First Minister set out last month. Bus services play a vital role in supporting the delivery of the three missions that are set out in the prospectus.
The Scottish Government took significant action to ensure that bus services were protected during the pandemic, including through the provision of £223 million between June 2020 and March 2022. We continued the network support grant plus until March 2023 to freeze fares and to help people with the cost of travel over the winter. Our support continues in 2023-24 with a broad package of investment in bus services—£421.8 million has been allocated, including through the network support grant and concessionary schemes. I was also pleased to launch the second phase of our co-funded marketing campaign with the Confederation of Passenger Transport UK and bus operators in Galashiels last week, to encourage people to choose the bus.
Our support for bus services takes a number of different forms. In particular, our national free bus travel schemes for young people and for older and disabled people are the most generous in the United Kingdom. The schemes cover a larger percentage of the population than anywhere else in the UK, with up to 2.6 million people eligible for free bus travel in Scotland. That is encouraging more people to choose the bus, and it is helping us to meet our net zero targets by encouraging a shift away from cars. It is a transformational policy, and we now have more than two thirds of young people enjoying free bus travel, representing a new cardholder every minute since the scheme launched in January 2022. Therefore, although I recognise members’ arguments in relation to capping fares, I hope that, in turn, they will acknowledge just how widespread and significant our free fares support has become.