Ministerial Engagements

MACS again continued its engagement with Scottish Government Ministers across portfolios. This included focused and committee wide discussions.

These meetings are detailed below:

MACS meeting with the Minister for Transport, Jenny Gilruth MSP

At the meeting with the Minister for Transport, MACS raised the issue around the proposed exemptions to the pavement parking ban and restated their position that no streets should be made exempt referring back to our advice note to the Minister (March 2022) and submission to the consultation.

The Minister confirmed that it was her intention to permit local authorities to exempt streets and that December 2023 was the appropriate time for the ban to take effect.

However, she gave assurances that it would only be possible to exempt streets from the coming ban in exceptional circumstances and that no blanket bans would be permitted. The Minister also offered an open door for MACS to come back and discuss any issues when the ban was in force.

In advance of the consultation on the Fair Fares Review, MACS asked that consideration be given to extending concessionary travel to include journeys by rail explaining the background rationale, the benefits to disabled people and the links to other PfG commitments (as well as the links to the Affordable Travel policy within Annex 5 of the Child Poverty Delivery Plan for 2022 to 2026: Bright Start, Best Futures). The Minister welcomed the discussion and explained the fare structures for rail travel, including what was reserved and what was devolved and the challenges facing the industry. The Minister welcomed MACS responding to the Fair Fares Review, which would also capture some of these issues.

Further to the meeting, MACS made a request that "Accessible Travel" be added to the Minister's portfolio as described on the Scottish Government website, to give a clear line of sight to this area. This was agreed.

Meeting with Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, Shona Robison MSP

The Cabinet Secretary attended one of the full committee board meetings. The Convener gave an overview of Committee's work and previous engagements with Ministers linked to the Cabinet Secretary's Portfolios.

A general discussion took place around the 20-minute neighbourhoods' aspirations, linked to 2021 Programme for Government, MACS work in this area with the Alliance and DES and also on the consultation on the review of the PSED.

All parties agreed on the importance of accessible pedestrian spaces.

Meeting with Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth, Tom Arthur MSP

This meeting covered discussions on 20-minute neighbourhoods and the Town Centre Action Plan Review. MACS set out that they were supportive of SG work on 20-minute neighbourhoods, highlighting the importance of access to local services to disabled people, and asked for detail on how this will be delivered.

The Minister stated that the Revised Draft NPF4 laid at parliament contains a revised policy on local living and 20-minute neighbourhoods and that, subject to adoption, this will form part of the development plan and will be an important factor in planning decisions and key to delivering 20-minute neighbourhoods. The Minister emphasised the importance of acknowledging different contexts and of including the voice of communities to take an inclusive approach and achieve consistency of outcomes.

MACS expressed interest in the potential of developer contributions to support this agenda, helping to deliver local access improvements, particularly for disabled people. Particularly against the backdrop of concerns that appropriate, accessible infrastructure provision is not being delivered with housing development.

The Minister emphasised the importance of inclusion as a central component of 20-minute neighbourhood delivery and the need to deliver places that meet the needs of all members of communities. The Minister confirmed that inclusion and accessibility are being closely considered in the preparation of developing guidance on 20-minute neighbourhoods.

NPF4 Policy 18 – Infrastructure First – addresses the importance of infrastructure provision as a priority and the Minister emphasised that this will be key to the delivery 20-minute neighbourhoods. On developer contributions, the Minister stated that a review of this issue is underway to support the delivery of infrastructure required to create successful places.

MACS noted that the Town Centre Action Plan Review response highlighted the importance of working across multiple sectors and asked how Scottish Government will work with others to improve outcomes.

Key collaborative processes were highlighted as ways to address this including, new local development planning processes, participation requests, participatory budgeting, and community wealth building. The Minister stressed that everything depends on the economic model which can be addressed via a community wealth building approach and the five-pillar model; community ownership and cooperative models as ways to support town centres, local living, retain money within local communities and reduce supply chains, supporting net zero.

The importance of engaging with people with lived experience was collectively agreed and the Minister emphasised the need for planning to move from conflict
to collaboration, listening to real voices within communities.

The Minister expressed his desire to keep engaged with MACS on the topics discussed and thanked MACS for their valuable input and role.

Meeting with Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Humza Yousaf MSP

MACS' Transport to Health and Social Care subgroup met with Humza Yousaf, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care in January, along with officials from the Health Directorate and Scottish Ambulance Services.

The aim of the meeting was to discuss the lack of progress and plan a way forward since the MACS report into Transport for Health and Social Care from December 2019 and the follow up report in March 2020 that made a number of recommendations, as well as the workshop in 2021 organised by the Scottish Government Health Directorate.

Links to these reports can be found below:

It was agreed there would be a draft delivery plan, outlining how to implement the recommendations will be shared with MACS. This would be shared with MACS to discuss, including the possibility of an advisory board or alternatively an implementation group.

It was also agreed MACS and Scottish Ambulance Services will meet for a roundtable discussion on the review of patient transport service data, patient needs assessment, escort criteria and development of a new care strategy.

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