Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment (CRWIA) for the Community Bus Fund
Disclaimer
This draft document is an initial assessment of the impact of the Community Bus Fund and Scottish Government will continue to review and update this document where required during the development of the fund. Any future iterations will reflect an increased understanding of these impacts as the amount of data and research available continues to grow.
This impact assessment should be read in conjunction with the Equality Impact Assessment and the Fairer Scotland Duty Assessment.
CRWIA Stage 1 - Screening
Brief Summary (Guidance Section 2.1)
The Bute House Agreement and Programme for Government 2022-23 included a commitment to establish a ‘Community Bus Fund to support local transport authorities to improve local public transport in their areas. This fund will support local authorities to explore the full range of options set out in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, including municipal bus services.’ The fund is intended to run for the remainder of this Parliamentary term.
The Act builds on and improves the existing regulatory landscape for Scotland’s bus services with the principal aim of reversing the long-standing decline in bus patronage to deliver important benefits which include sustainable economic development, carbon emission reductions and enhanced social cohesion. Bus services are a cornerstone of our economy with the sector accounting for 79% of all public transport journeys in 2021-22.
The new provisions under the Act cover partnership working, local franchising, the power for Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) to run their own bus services and improvements to the information available to LTAs when services are deregistered. They will give LTAs the tools and flexibility they need to deliver improved bus services tailored to the specific needs of their areas. Implementing the Act could make bus services more available, accessible and potentially affordable for all of society.
The Community Bus Fund (CBF) aims to support this reform by funding local authorities to complete the preparatory work required for the Act powers, as well as broader innovations and improvements to local public transport. The resource element will support local authorities to conduct reviews and assessments of their current networks, and the capital element in 2023-24 will support improvements to infrastructure, and be distributed to all local authorities based on levels of transport poverty. Transport Poverty is defined as; not affordable; not available or suitable; doesn’t enable access in a reasonable time with reasonable ease; dangerous, unsafe or unhealthy travel conditions. This reflects the specific challenges rural areas face in bus provision, particularly for those in poverty as without access to an alternative form of transport, households may be forced into car ownership, further increasing levels of poverty in these areas.
The delivery of these benefits aligns with the Scottish Government’s National Transport Strategy 2 (NTS2). Published in February 2020, the NTS2 seeks to reduce inequalities and advance equality of opportunity and outcome, take climate action to make travel choices that minimise the long-term impacts on our climate, develop a transport system that will help deliver sustainable and inclusive economic growth and which will be safe and enable a healthy, active and fit nation.
The bus provisions within the Act also align with the Scottish Government’s 2021 Climate Change Plan Update which reflects new and ambitious targets to reduce emissions by 75% by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2045 whilst envisaging a reduction in private car mileage of 20% by 2032.
Start date of relevant proposal: December 2022
Start date of CRWIA process: 9 August 2023
Which aspects of the relevant proposal currently affects or will affect children and young people up to the age of 18? (Guidance Section 2.1)
In general terms children and young people along with all other bus users would benefit from improved bus services and infrastructure in their areas. In the Transport and Travel in Scotland 2021 report it noted on page 7 that young people aged between 16-19 are most likely to have used the bus the previous day (79%) compared with other age groups.
The reviews and assessments are aimed at supporting local authorities to prepare for implementation of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 powers. In relation to bus services, the objective of the 2019 Act is to provide a toolkit to give local authorities the flexibility to pursue partnership working, local franchising, or running their own buses – allowing local authorities to better respond to local needs. While we anticipate that the provisions of the Act and regulations will have a positive impact on bus users, including children and young people, it will ultimately depend on the actions and proposals of each local transport authority. The Community Bus Fund is not a direct delivery tool for the Act powers themselves, it is a tool for local authorities to put themselves in a position where they can fully consider the options in the Act and what is appropriate for their respective areas. As such, this part of the proposal would not affect children or young people.
The capital element of the Community Bus Fund will be provided to local authorities for improvements to infrastructure, and there are a variety of ways local authorities may choose to spend the funds. With younger people being more likely to use bus, they would benefit from upgrades to infrastructure that would improve the experience of using a bus, however this would not affect children and young people’s rights or wellbeing.
Which groups of children and young people are currently or will be affected by the relevant proposal? (Guidance Section 2.1)
According to the Poverty and Inequality Commission’s report Transport and Child Poverty - Beyond the pandemic 2021, page 11, low-income households were often exclusively using public transport and had no access to private transport. Therefore children and young people from low income households are more likely to benefit from the above improvements to the user experience anticipated from the capital funding.
As set out above, this group may also benefit over the longer term if local authorities use the reviews and assessments from the resource funding as a basis for implementing the Act powers in their area.
Disabled children may also benefit from any improvements to infrastructure from the capital funding that make it easier to get on or off buses, however this would be dependent on whether a local authority chose to use the funds in this way.
Declaration
Is a Stage 2 Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment required? (Tick relevant requirement) (Guidance Section 2.1)
CRWIA not required
Explanation why CRWIA is not required:
The resource element of the Community Bus Fund will support local authorities to complete internal reviews and assessments of their local bus networks, which will enable them to consider implementing the options in the Transport Act once in force. In isolation, these reviews and assessments will not have a material impact on the delivery of bus services, and will therefore not affect bus users, including children or young people either directly or indirectly. Local authorities may use the outcomes from reviews and assessments to make future improvements to their current bus network, and implement powers within the Transport Act. However this would be outside the scope of the Community Bus Fund, and would be a matter for the local transport authority to consider taking into account their individual situations and their local community’s needs.
The Community Bus Fund will also provide capital funding for local authorities to make improvements to infrastructure such as bus stops. With younger people being more likely to use bus, they would benefit from upgrades that would improve the experience of using a bus, however this would not affect children’s rights or wellbeing.
In addition, in administering the funds, local authorities have duties to assess impacts of spend on children and young people.