Question reference: S5W-35583
- Asked by: Elaine Smith, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 26 February 2021
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Current status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 March 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made with the review of the extension of free bus travel to under-26s.
Answer
Since the original commitment to carry out a review was made Scottish Ministers have gone further and confirmed the extension of free bus travel to approximately 770,000 young people young people under the age of 19. Once the scheme starts, as soon as practicable in financial year 2020-21, under 19s will join the third of Scotland’s population who already benefit from free bus travel. Public consultation has demonstrated strong support for the scheme.
We have also committed to make as much progress as possible during 2021-22 to deliver free bus travel to under 22s and have allocated an additional £17 million in the Budget for this purpose.
The wider review on extending concessionary travel across all modes of public transport to those under the age of 26 was paused as a result of the impact of COVID-19, but is nearing completion.
As part of the review on extending concessionary travel across all modes of public transport to those under the age of 26 an assessment framework was developed to undertake multi-criteria analysis to assess their contribution to delivering the National Transport Strategy. This framework has been used to assess a range of options as well as considering other factors such as assessment of cost and deliverability and once the review has been finalised the Scottish Government will publish the findings.