Introduction

Background

There has been a decline in bus patronage in Scotland (and the UK) since the 1960s with some regional variation. That said, bus travel remains the key mode of public transport for many people in Scotland, with 73% of public transport journeys being by bus. A number of factors are thought to have impacted on the declining use of bus services. In the recent past, the COVID pandemic has also had a significant additional negative impact through real and perceived transmission risk with, for a period, public health advice advising against the use of public transport unless for essential travel. Private cars have become the main mode of transport used by people in Scotland presenting a range of policy issues which include climate, public health and accessibility and which are covered in Scotland’s Climate Change Plan and the second National Transport Strategy.

Part 3 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 develops and refines the regulatory framework with a range of options designed to reverse the decline in bus usage and improve bus services. It offers local transport authorities (LTAs) a new range of options for the improvement of bus services in their area.

Implementing the 2019 Act will help LTAs and bus operators to make services more available, accessible and affordable for everyone. At present, the majority of bus services in Scotland are provided by private operators on a commercial basis under a regulatory framework which includes the Public Passengers Vehicles Act 1981 and the Transport Act 1985 and which covers safety and environmental standards, operator and driver qualifications and compliance with legal obligations, as well as punctuality and reliability of services.

The Scottish Government subsidises a proportion of the overall costs of the bus network and Transport Scotland provides payments for carrying passengers under the national concessionary travel scheme for older and disabled people. Some bus services are also supported by LTAs in their area to meet local needs, under a duty to secure the provision of services to meet public transport requirements within their area that would otherwise not be provided commercially.

The Consultation

On 14 July 2021, Transport Scotland published a consultation on ‘Implementing Part 3 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019: Bus Services’ in order to gather stakeholder and public views. The findings from this consultation will help to create the regulations and supporting guidance for implementing the new bus provisions in Part 3 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, so that these are suitable and can be used effectively by local transport authorities in creating a responsive public transport network that meets the needs of users and potential users.

The consultation contained 51 questions, all of which offered respondents the opportunity to provide comments on specific issues relating to the implementation of Part 3 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 in relation to bus services.

Respondent profile

In total, there were 67 responses to the consultation, of which 42 were from organisations and 25 from individuals.

Respondents were assigned to respondent groupings in order to enable analysis of any differences or commonalities across or within the various different types of organisations and individuals that responded.

A list of all those organisations that submitted a response to the consultation is included in Appendix 1.

As the following table shows, the highest number of organisation responses was from local authorities (12), followed by trade union / campaigning organisations (7) and regional transport partnerships (6).

Respondent Group	Number
Equalities	2
Local authority/Organisation Representing Local Authorities	12
Operator	2
Political party/regional party group	5
Regional Transport Partnership	6
Representative body	3
Third sector	5
Trade Union/campaigning	7
Total organisations	42
Individuals	25
Total	67

Methodology

Responses to the consultation were submitted using the Scottish Government consultation platform Citizen Space, or by email or hard copy. Nineteen respondents submitted a response which did not answer the specific questions; these responses have been analysed and incorporated into the report at the relevant sections.

In addition, responses to a campaign were received and findings from this have been incorporated into the report where relevant. Initially, a brief version was submitted by respondents but then the wording was extended and became more detailed. A total of 1,107 campaign responses were received; 135 of the shorter version, and 972 of the extended version. The text of these two versions is provided in Appendix 2.

It should be borne in mind that the number responding at each question is not always the same as the number presented in the respondent group table. This is because not all respondents addressed all questions. This report indicates the number of respondents who commented at each question. When referring to respondents who made particular comments, the terms ‘a small number’, ‘a few’ and so on have been used. While the analysis was qualitative in nature, as the questionnaire only contained a small number of quantifiable questions, as a very general rule of thumb it can be assumed that: ‘a very small number’ indicates around 1-2 respondents, ‘a small number’ indicates around 3-4 respondents; ‘a few indicates around 5-7; ‘a significant minority’ indicates over 8 but fewer than 12; and a large minority indicates around 13-23 of those who commented at any question.

Some of the consultation questions were composed of closed tick-boxes with specific options to choose from. Where respondents did not follow the questions but mentioned clearly within their text that they supported one of the options, these have been included in the relevant counts.

The researchers examined all comments made by respondents and noted the range of issues mentioned in responses, including reasons for opinions, specific examples or explanations, alternative suggestions or other comments. Grouping these issues together into similar themes allowed the researchers to identify whether any particular theme was specific to any particular respondent group or groups. Where any specific sub-group(s) held a particular viewpoint, this is commented on at each relevant question.

When considering group differences however, it must also be recognised that where a specific opinion has been identified in relation to a particular group or groups, this does not indicate that other groups did not share this opinion, but rather that they simply did not comment on that particular point.

While the consultation gave all who wished to comment an opportunity to do so, given the self-selecting nature of this type of exercise, any figures quoted here cannot be extrapolated to a wider population out with the respondent sample.

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