Purpose

NSTAB is established under the National Smart Ticketing Advisory Board (Scotland) Regulations 2023 (the “2023 Regulations”). NSTAB is established in fulfilment of a legal requirement placed on the Scottish Ministers by section 27C of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001 (the "2001 Act”) to establish an advisory committee to be known as the National Smart Ticketing Advisory Board. Section 27C was inserted into the 2001 Act by section 43 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 (the “2019 Act”).

NSTAB has statutory functions set out in section 27C of the 2001 Act:

• To advise the Scottish Ministers in relation to their functions insofar as they relate to smart ticketing arrangements.
• To advise the Scottish Ministers in relation to their functions insofar as they relate to the national technological standard for smart ticketing.
• To issue advice and recommendations to the Scottish Ministers in relation to the strategic development of smart ticketing in Scotland.

The 2023 Regulations make further provision about NSTAB and should be consulted in full, but a brief summary of key provisions follows:

• NSTAB is to consist of 10 to 14 voting members and up to 3 non-voting members, with an additional non-voting member appointed to act as Chairperson (but note the Chairperson has a casting vote in the case of an equality of votes). All members will be appointed by the Scottish Ministers.
• The Scottish Ministers must make arrangements for NSTAB to be provided with such administrative support and office accommodation as the Scottish Ministers consider appropriate.
• The Scottish Ministers may pay NSTAB members such remuneration as the Scottish Ministers consider appropriate, and they must pay or reimburse members' reasonable expenses in connection with NSTAB’s functions.
• NSTAB is required to produce a work programme, and this must be approved by the Scottish Ministers.
• NSTAB must prepare and submit an annual report to the Scottish Ministers measuring its success and collating all advice given and recommendations made to the Scottish Ministers in the past year.

NSTAB has also been added to the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 via The National Smart Ticketing Advisory Board (Gender Representation on Public Boards) (Scotland) Regulations 2023. It is the intention to make NSTAB subject to the Ethical Standards in Public Life etc. (Scotland) Act 2000, and the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010.

The Scottish Ministers may make NSTAB subject to other legislation if they consider it appropriate, and members will be made aware if so, and the terms of any such legislation take precedence over any part of this document (as noted in paragraph 3)

Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018

NSTAB has been added to schedule 1 of the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 (the “Gender Representation Act”), making it a “public authority” under the Act. As such, NSTAB is committed to achieving the gender representation objective, which is that 50% of board members are women. Legal duties have been placed on NSTAB and the Scottish Ministers to support the achievement of the gender representation objective:

As the “appointing person”, the Scottish Ministers are required to follow the positive action measures contained in sections 3 and 4 of the Gender Representation Act. In short, these measures require the appointing person to take certain steps when they reach the final selection stage to fill a vacancy on the board, with a view to achieving the “gender representation objective”;

Under section 5(1) the Scottish Ministers are also required to take appropriate steps to encourage woman to apply to become members of NSTAB, and they are required to report regularly on their activities under the 2018 Act relating to NSTAB.

Under section 5(2) NSTAB is also required to take appropriate steps to encourage women to apply to become members of the board, and NSTAB is required to report regularly on these activities;

Specifically for members of NSTAB, section 5(2) states that, “a public authority to which a public board relates must take such steps as it considers appropriate to encourage women to apply to become non-executive members of the public board.” In the case of NSTAB, this is the membership of NSTAB. Every member of NSTAB is a “non-executive member” under the Act. Therefore, the membership of NSTAB must take such steps as it considers appropriate to encourage women to apply to become members of NSTAB.

Under regulation 4 of the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 (Reports) Regulations 2020, the membership of NSTAB must publish a report under section 8(5) of the Gender Representation Act at least every 2 years, reporting on any activity taken to encourage applications from women per section 5(2) of the Gender Representation Act. There is statutory guidance that NSTAB members must have regard to when exercising these functions - Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018: Statutory Guidance.

The Gender Representation Act does not impose a penalty on listed authorities (i.e NSTAB) or appointing persons (i.e the Scottish Ministers in this case) should a listed authority fail to achieve the gender representation objective. Rather, the Gender Representation Act places legal obligations on appointing persons and listed authorities to continuously take steps towards achieving the gender representation objective. Reporting requirements require appointing persons and listed authorities to be transparent about their progress.