Portfolio Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament am 2:00 pm ar 31 Hydref 2024.
Mr Mark Ruskell
Green
2:00,
31 Hydref 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it is supporting local transport authorities to franchise bus services. (S6O-03863)
Jim Fairlie
Scottish National Party
The Scottish Government has delivered all the bus powers in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 to enable local transport authorities to consider all the powers available to them, including franchising, and we will provide general and statutory guidance on the franchising process. This is currently under development and will be published once the remaining franchising legislation is completed.
It is for local transport authorities to determine what powers, if any, to use to improve local bus services. Any authority considering the franchising powers must ensure that their business case is made robustly and in an evidence-based way to support future decisions.
Mr Mark Ruskell
Green
It should be clear to the Minister, following last night’s vote, that he does not have the confidence of the Parliament or stakeholders in the franchising process for Scotland’s bus services. How will he rebuild that confidence in the months ahead? The first decision on franchising is unlikely to take place until summer 2027, so there is time to work constructively with Strathclyde Partnership for Transport and other transport authorities on a fairer and more robust process that puts the public interest at its heart.
Jim Fairlie
Scottish National Party
I beg to differ with Mark Ruskell’s assessment of the situation. I am struggling to understand how he can say that there was no agreement on franchising yesterday. In every discussion that I have had and in every debate, everybody talks about how they want franchising to happen. The regulations were set in 2019 primary legislation, but I get the fact that there have been some issues in relation to them over the past week. However, I have contacted my officials to say that I will continue to have conversations with Valerie Davidson and Stephen Dornan from SPT to provide an assurance to the people who are demanding that franchising takes place that the process will stay on course.
Colin Beattie
Scottish National Party
The Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 enabled franchising, and the SNP has made significant improvements to public transport in Scotland, including by providing free bus travel for our young people. Can the Minister say anything more about the impact of those policies on the affordability and accessibility of public transport and the vision for future improvement?
Liam McArthur
Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol
That supplementary goes slightly wide of the original question, but if the Minister is able to add anything, I invite him to do so briefly.
Jim Fairlie
Scottish National Party
Free bus travel is opening up opportunities all over the country for children, families and young people, and it is enabling young people to broaden their horizons by choosing to study further away from home, where that suits. Franchising will be part of that process, and we aim to continue to move forward with that.
Paul Sweeney
Llafur
Jonathan Bray, who is one of the leading experts on bus franchising development across the United Kingdom, has said that if Scotland adopts the panel-based approach by giving to the traffic commissioner unilateral power to veto SPT’s plans for a bus franchise, that
“will be a serious mistake which ultimately will be seen as such ... It’s hard to see any rational justification for it other than it serves the interests of those who wish to maintain the status quo for as long as is possible.”
He also said that the panel should be “deleted from the process” and that the regional transport authority—SPT—should be given the unfettered ability to implement, democratically, the desired scheme for the region. That has the support of the Parliament, in committee and, I would contend, in this chamber.
Will the Minister agree to revise the proposal to have the powers in question vested in the traffic commissioner and to come back to Parliament with a revised scheme and amend the legislation accordingly?
Jim Fairlie
Scottish National Party
SPT agrees that checks and balances should be in place, which is why such a provision was included in the 2019 act.
We are now in a position in which the panel will be put in place, there will be full scrutiny and we will put in place guidance, which the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee will have a chance to look at. If we delay that process, we will have to go back to primary legislation, which, as I have said in a number of debates, will stall it even further.
As I have said, I am preparing to meet SPT. We will discuss the matter further. However, franchising is going forward at the right pace.
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