Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund and ChargePlace Scotland funding: EIR release

Information requested

Please would you be able to provide me with answers to the following:

1.Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund
a.How much of the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund (which was announced to include £60 million of public and private investment last year to increase Scotland’s public charging network to 6000 points by 2026) has been spent by the Scottish Government so far to date?
b.Please provide a breakdown of where this money has been spent.
c.Please provide a breakdown of how much of this money spent has been put towards the development of charging points in the Highlands and Islands.

2.ChargePlace Scotland
a.How much money has been given by the Scottish Government to ChargePlace Scotland each year from 2013 to 2024?
b.Where has ChargePlace Scotland spent these funds? (Clarified by email) Both would be useful –(i) A breakdown of funds spent in each geographical council area of Scotland, and also(ii) A breakdown of in what kind of domains ChargePlace Scotland has spent the funds – e.g. management, administration, installation labour, installation parts, etc.
c.How much has ChargePlace Scotland spent towards developing charging points in the Highlands and Islands? Q2c (clarified by email) My request 2(A) above will cover the total spend in Highlands and Islands, but I would also like to know if there has been any special attention and/or investment dedicated to the Highlands and Islands, especially given the exceptional geography and corresponding needs of the region. Does ChargePlace have a special plan for the region?

Response

Response to your request

Q1.a. How much of the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund (which was announced to include £60 million of public and private investment last year to increase Scotland’s public charging network to 6000 points by 2026) has been spent by the Scottish Government so far to date?

The EV infrastructure fund is providing £30 million to support Local Authorities to work with the private sector to leverage £30 million of additional private sector funding to continue to grow Scotland public EV charging network.

Through this fund each Local Authority has been offered up to £140,000 (£4.48 million in total) to support the cost of identifying current and future EV charging requirements and the access of legal and procurement expertise. To date £2.33 million has been drawn down by Local Authorities, with the majority of the remaining £2.25 million expected to be drawn down during the remainder of 2024-25 as Local Authorities commence public procurement. This funding is set out in Annex 1.

Each Local Authority is also being offered funding to support the cost of the continued expansion of the public EV charging network based on its identified current and future EV charging requirements. To date £7.1 million has been awarded to Local Authorities with further funding awards expected over the course of 2024-25. This funding is due to be drawn down by Local Authorities over the next four to five years, following public procurement to secure private sector delivery partners.

Of the £7.1 million identified above, the North of Scotland collaboration (Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Highland and Moray Councils) was awarded £6.8m to enable the delivery of various multi-site charging points therefore meeting the needs of the communities across the region.

Through the EV Infrastructure Fund, Transport Scotland and Scottish Futures Trust are providing support to HITRANS with the specific challenges of identifying current and future EV charging requirements across the Orkney, Shetland, Na h-Eileanan Siar and Argyll and Bute Council areas to supporting a bid for funding.

Q 1.b. Please provide a breakdown of where this money has been spent.

Annex 1 provides a breakdown of funding awarded and paid out to Local Authorities through EVIF.

Q 1.c. Please provide a breakdown of how much of this money spent has been put towards the development of charging points in the Highlands and Islands.

Annex 2 provides an extract of the breakdown of EVIF funding awarded and paid out to Local Authorities identified in Annex 1, highlighting funding across the Highlands and islands.

Q 2.a. How much money has been given by the Scottish Government to ChargePlace Scotland each year from 2013 to 2024?

Funding is not given directly to ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) to invest in the installation of EV charging infrastructure. Instead grant funding has been given to over 400 different organisations across the public, private and third sectors over the last decade to procure and install charging infrastructure. CPS is the brand name of the network which manages and makes available to the public via a website and mobile applications the infrastructure belonging to those 400 plus organisations.

The CPS network is operated by a third-party charge point operator (CPO), contracted by Transport Scotland through a publicly tendered Framework Agreement. The value of the Framework Agreement, and all previous iterations, is available in the public domain via the Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) website.

CPS does not invest in, provide or maintain the charging infrastructure, nor does CPS have any involvement in deciding what type of charge points are installed or where they are located. The Scottish Government pay for the operational services required to run the CPS network on behalf of the charge point owners.

CPS in its current form was first formalised through a Framework Agreement and a robust contract underpinned by KPIs in October 2016. Please see the table below with CPS contract costs from this date onwards. Prior to 2016 SG provided funding for the operation of a basic charge point management service through a legacy scheme called Plugged In Places (PIP). The total cost for the years covered by the PIP scheme are also included below for your interest.

Financial Years	CPS Contract Costs
2013 to 2016	£506,185.09
(from Oct 2016) 2016/17	£323,238.18
2017/18	£486,027.85
2018/19	£579,748.58
2019/20	£941,465.46
2020/21	£1,081,955.51
2021/22	£1,076,542.67
2022/23	£891,343.20
2023/24	£1,842,187.68
2024/25 (up to August 2024)	£684,943.38
Grand Total	£8,413,637.60

Q 2.b. Where has ChargePlace Scotland spent these funds?
Question 2b (Clarified by email) Both would be useful –
(A) A breakdown of funds spent in each geographical council area of Scotland, and also
(B) A breakdown of in what kind of domains ChargePlace Scotland has spent the funds – e.g. management, administration, installation labour, installation parts, etc.

A)The annual cost of running the CPS contract cannot be split geographically. It is a centralised operation for running the network across the whole of Scotland.

B) As referenced in answer 2a, the kind of domains covered by the CPS contract encompasses customer services, first line fault management, account services and the provision of the technical and operational resources required to run a public EV charging network. More comprehensive details of what services and functions the CPS contract covers can be found in the CPS Framework Agreement document on the Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) View Notice - Public Contracts Scotland

Q 2.c. How much has ChargePlace Scotland spent towards developing charging points in the Highlands and Islands?

Q2c (clarified by email) My request 2(A) above will cover the total spend in Highlands and Islands, but I would also like to know if there has been any special attention and/or investment dedicated to the Highlands and Islands, especially given the exceptional geography and corresponding needs of the region. Does ChargePlace have a special plan for the region?

A) CPS itself does not fund the development or installation of charge points nor does it create plans for expanding provision in any particular region. This is the responsibility of the owners of charge points on the CPS network, such as The Highland Council and the respective island Local Authorities.

The Scottish Government has supported the development of the public EV charging network over the last decade through a number of funding schemes, with over £65m of funding provided to date. This includes a significant proportion of support provided to support local authorities installing public EV charging infrastructure across all of Scotland, with over £9 million specifically awarded to support local authorities in the Highlands & Islands through historic schemes such as the Local Authority Installation Programme (LAIP) and the Low Carbon Travel and Transport Programme (LCTTP).

In addition to this through EVIF, specific plans are being developed for this area through the Strategy & Expansion Plans (SEPs). The Scottish Government is now allocating funding to support the development of infrastructure in line with these plans and has already allocated £6.8m the North of Scotland collaboration which includes Highland Council, Aberdeen Council. Aberdeenshire Council & Moray Council. Other Highland & Island Authorities are anticipated to be awarded their EVIF allocations before the end of the financial year, dependent on funding applications being received.

Scottish Government funding has been delivered in a way that ensures a comprehensive public charging network is developed across all of Scotland, including rural and island communities across the Highlands & Islands. A number of specific projects have been supported that have targeted investment in the Highlands & Islands, including:
•the Electric A9;
•low carbon travel hubs in Inverness and Orkney, funded through Transport Scotland’s Low Carbon Travel and Transport Fund and
•HITRANS-led E-Hubs and FASTER projects, which have more recently seen additional rapid charging infrastructure installed across Argyll and Bute, the Western Isles and north and west Highland.

EIR 202400430257 - Information Released - Annex

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