S6W-27640

Asked by: Kerr, Liam (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - North East Scotland)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it discontinued the Smarter Choices, Smarter Places programme, and what its position is on what any repercussions of that decision will be.

Answered by Hyslop, Fiona - Minister for Transport

The Smarter Choices, Smarter Places (SCSP) programme was a long-established cornerstone of the way the Scottish Government approached promoting the popular shift to more active and sustainable ways of making our everyday journeys.

With its origins in the 2006 National Transport Strategy commitment to test and explore “sustainable travel demonstration towns and villages, to reduce car use and promote cycling, walking, home zones, tele-working and pedestrianisation”, the SCSP programme was announced jointly by the Scottish Government and COSLA in early 2008. The term ‘smarter choices’ was itself coined in the title of an extensive “Smarter Choices – Changing the Way We Travel” report conducted by a group of academic experts and published by the UK Department for Transport in 2004.

Seven pilot projects ran for three years from 2009 to 2012, and following their success, the programme was continued and then expanded nationally, being delivered on Transport Scotland’s behalf by ‘Scotland’s national walking charity’ Paths for All, from 2015. SCSP continued to adapt as time went on, and as of 2023, it consisted of three funding and support packages: The core 'Local Authority Fund' allocated on a per capita basis to councils, an 'Open Fund' launched in 2018 to support public and third sector community-level projects, and an 'Active Nation Fund' launched in 2023 to support larger more strategic multi-regional projects.

Paths for All managed the funding bid, allocation, and monitoring and evaluation process across the entire programme, providing a wealth of expert help and advice to the beneficiaries of all three funds, and facilitating knowledge and best practice sharing nationally through an SCSP Network. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Paths for All and all of the staff who have worked on the SCSP programme since it's inception and to this day, for their passion, dedication, and hard work in the service of a more sustainable Scotland.

Some twenty years on from the publication of the original 'Smarter Choices' report, and after nearly ten years of Path for All's stewardship of SCSP as a national programme, we continue to adapt with the times. This year marks the start of a new chapter in the way we seek to achieve these outcomes. The stark reality is that despite the stalwart efforts and proven individual successes of SCSP projects, and the many other active and sustainable travel initiatives that we have supported, the national level figures across walking, wheeling, and cycling for the last decade and beyond have remained stubbornly consistent.

Meanwhile, this government's ambition for active travel has never been greater, nor our acknowledgement of the vital role it has to play in keeping us physically fit and mentally happy, with cleaner air and safer streets for everyone. Not to mention, of course, helping tackle the climate emergency for the sake of our children. And knowing the social and economic dividends that these outcomes deliver, we have concentrated our efforts: Investment in active travel infrastructure and promotion stands at record levels, over five times the amount this year than it was in 2012.

In this context, we require a new model of programme delivery that can take this level of ambition and transform it into the change that people want and expect to see. That's why we took the decision, as difficult as it may have been for such a well-established programme, to discontinue SCSP, as part of a much larger transformation of active travel delivery across both infrastructure and behaviour change.

Our new ‘Active Travel People and Place’ programme is a fresh approach whereby budget which was previously grant funded from the centre of government directly to national third sector delivery partners, has instead been entrusted to Scotland's seven Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs). RTPs have in turn worked with their respective local authorities to design their own tailored programmes of behaviour change initiatives under a national policy framework. Coupled with our new delivery model for active travel infrastructure, our vision is for more control and autonomy at regional and local levels, with an emphasis on the important link between behaviour change and infrastructure in achieving modal shift.

In discontinuing the SCSP Local Authority Fund we have retained core funding to councils through a separate ‘Local Authority Direct Award’, which in the spirit of the Verity House Agreement, lessens administrative burdens around application and reporting. In discontinuing the SCSP Open Fund we have retained interim support for community projects through a ‘Community Projects Transition Fund’, with Paths for All working with RTPs on capacity and capability building and future delivery model design. In the creation of the Active Travel People and Place Programme overall, to a significant extent the RTPs have chosen to retain the services of our established third sector delivery partners.

Our position on the impact of these reforms is that they will help us rise to the challenge of meeting our ambitions, delivering active travel services that are better aligned with regional transport strategies and infrastructure, that better meet the needs of local communities, and that significantly increase the national-level numbers of active and sustainable everyday journeys.

S6W-27526

Asked by: Ruskell, Mark (Scottish Green Party - Mid Scotland and Fife)

Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on phase 2 of the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund (ScotZEB2) funding; a list of successful applicants to the fund, and whether it has any plans to introduce a future funding stream targeted to smaller community transport operators.  

Answered by Hyslop, Fiona - Minister for Transport

Final applications to the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund (ScotZEB2) were received in January 2024. An announcement about the outcome of the applications is expected in the near future.

To date, through ScotZEB 1 and the previous two rounds of the Scottish Ultra Low Emissions Bus Scheme, the Scottish Government has provided £113 million capital funding for 548 public service zero emission buses. There are currently no plans to introduce further direct funding programmes for zero emission buses. ScotZEB 2 has been designed to support bus and coach operators, manufacturers, local authorities, financiers and the energy sector to make the market for zero-emission vehicles and infrastructure commercially self-sustaining without further funding from the government.

Unlike previous schemes, school buses, community buses, and tourist and private-hire coaches were eligible for inclusion in ScotZEB 2 in addition to public service buses. ScotZEB 2 was preceded by a market transition scheme in 2022-23 which provided financial support to SMEs to assess their options to decarbonise their vehicles, allowing them to participate in the development of consortia bidding for ScotZEB 2 funding.

Mentions:
1: Forbes, Kate (SNP - Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch) What would it mean for the transport budget, when investment in transport systems has a clear impact - Speech Link
2: Forbes, Kate (SNP - Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch) The community is able to raise money from that and to reinvest it in the community. - Speech Link
3: Forbes, Kate (SNP - Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch) In addition, the Government has very clear aspirations for it to continue to be part of the local and - Speech Link
4: Chapman, Maggie (Green - North East Scotland) transport links improving so that they can get to local jobs that might be available. - Speech Link
5: Forbes, Kate (SNP - Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch) be the normal expectation from our transport organisations. - Speech Link

Correspondence May. 29 2024

Found: Transport In terms of air quality pollutants (including ammonia and NO 2), the Scottish Government