Meeting of the Parliament 12 November 2025
I will come on to Craig Hoy’s point later in my speech.
Although we are supportive of the Green Party motion that we are debating today, it is important that any future expansion of free bus travel to more young people—and, indeed, to others—must be affordable and sustainable. The cost of the free bus pass for under-22s is currently sitting at £200.5 million, and we estimate costs of a further £100 million per year to extend free travel to young people under the age of 26.
This financial year, we will also progress a national pilot to extend free bus travel to people who are seeking asylum, as well as establishing a pilot scheme for a £2 bus fare cap in one of Scotland’s transport regions, which is backed by a £3 million fund.
I also recently announced £20 million through our transformative bus infrastructure fund. That investment supports the development and construction of a wide range of infrastructure projects across Scotland, from bus lanes and bus priority signals to accessible features and transport hubs. Those improvements are designed to shorten journey times, increase reliability and improve integration with other modes of transport, which ultimately encourages more people to choose the bus over private vehicles.
To help local transport authorities to improve bus provision in their areas, the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 has now delivered the powers for local authorities and regional transport partnerships to take forward partnership working, franchising and local authority-run services, alongside their existing ability to subsidise services. It is important to remember that it is a decision for each authority to determine which, if any, of the powers that we have introduced will best address the transport challenges of their area.
The vast majority of passengers who travel by bus do so safely and responsibly. That includes people of all ages who use their free bus entitlement to travel. None of that would be possible without the bus drivers keeping communities connected. However, a minority of people of all ages act in a way that can result in harm to bus employees and passengers, and that is simply not acceptable.
We are determined to address antisocial behaviour on the bus network. The programme for government prioritised the consideration of suspending the use of concessionary travel cards on a temporary and potentially permanent basis as a result of antisocial behaviour when using the card. Detailed work is progressing on a behaviour code, robust impact assessments and a process for suspension, with enabling secondary legislation due to be laid before the Parliament on 4 December. It is simply not acceptable for drivers or passengers to have to put up with antisocial behaviour. Our actions should send a clear message to the small minority that action will be taken and that they will lose that privilege if they continue with antisocial behaviour.