Young Persons Free Bus Travel Scheme (YPS) statistics: FOI release

Information requested

1. How many 5-22 year olds are getting free bus passes and how much this has been costing the tax payer each financial year since its introduction.

2. How much has been spent on housing refugees and asylum seekers in my local area, South Lanarkshire. Once again giving a breakdown of where this money has come from. Including a breakdown of cost for free bus and gym passes for refugees and asylum seekers for each financial year they have been here.

Response

1. According to data published by our operational team, I can confirm that 783,000 young people have a National Entitlement Card which enables them to access the Young Persons Free Bus Travel Scheme (YPS). I have listed reimbursement figures broken down by year, along with the implementation and ongoing operational costs as a cumulative total below.

Operator Reimbursement Costs for the YPS:

FY 21/22 £5,968,450.72
FY 22/23 £107,810,241.23
FY 23/24 £164,217,412.63
FY 24/25 £79,778,761.97 (as at 25 September 2024)

Implementation and ongoing operational costs

As at 25 September 2024 - £6,477,239.67

2. In relation to the second element of your request, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested.

Asylum and immigration are reserved to the UK Parliament and handled by the Home Office, including the provision of asylum accommodation and decisions relating to the operation of refugee resettlement programmes. As asylum and immigration are reserved to the UK Parliament and handled by the Home Office, you may wish to contact the Home Office at foirequests@homeoffice.gov.uk to find out whether there is further information which they would be able to provide in relation to your request.

Additional information

In response to the other points you raise in your letter, to clarify the statement made in our previous response relating to 16-21 year olds, it is 60% of those who use the Young Persons Scheme who are 16-21. This demonstrates their appetite for the scheme and represents significant cost savings for young people accessing education and work.

In relation to value for money of the scheme, we are committed to ongoing Monitoring and Evaluation work to ensure that the scheme is meeting its aims and providing value for money to the taxpayer. The Year One Evaluation of the scheme was published on 14 December 2023 and can be found on the Transport Scotland website at Summary report - Year 1 evaluation - Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme | Transport Scotland. The findings of the report are generally very positive, with signs that the scheme is already beginning to deliver progress towards its longer term objectives.

In addition, whilst the Scottish Government has no plans to extend the concessionary travel schemes beyond the current eligibility criteria or to amend the scope of the existing schemes, we are committed to undertaking further policy development to consider better targeting of public funds towards supporting access to public transport for those who need it most, including consideration of concessionary travel support for those experiencing financial poverty.

With regards to antisocial behaviour, we believe that everyone has the right to be, and feel, safe in their community. The Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 provides a wide range of measures for dealing with all antisocial behaviour and our national strategy is based on prevention, early intervention and positive diversionary activities. Local authorities, and Police Scotland, lead on preventing and tackling antisocial behaviour within the local areas they cover, working with partners and local communities. We work with local authorities, the police and other partner organisations, to ensure they have a full range of options, powers and resources to prevent and tackle antisocial behaviour.

We have also commissioned an Independent Working Group on Antisocial Behaviour, which is due to report by the end of the year. The group has been taking evidence from a wide range of stakeholders, including from those working in the transport sector. Their report will provide us with an improved understanding of antisocial behaviour and insight into how the strategic approach to prevention remains relevant for a changing society today.

Regarding general neglect of streets and footpaths, the Scottish Government remains committed to our 2030 vision for active travel – where walking, wheeling and cycling are the natural choice for shorter everyday journeys. In 2024/25 we have allocated over £100 million across a number of infrastructure programmes to develop and deliver walking, wheeling and cycling infrastructure. These new and improved cycle paths, pavements and links are opening up connections between and within communities. By creating safe and accessible infrastructure we are helping more people than ever able to leave the car at home for short, everyday journeys.

In relation to the condition of roads, in Scotland, local roads are the responsibility of the local authority as it is also the local roads authority. Transport Scotland, through our trunk road operating companies is responsible for the strategic trunk road network including motorways. In respect of trunk roads, total investment in safely operating and maintaining the trunk road network will increase from over £525 million in 2023-24 to over £683 million in 2024 25, an increase of 30%. The increased budget for trunk road network safety, adaptation, operation and maintenance enables us to meet all our contractual and legal commitments as well as support our wider commitments on road safety, air quality and climate change adaptation.

We are investing record amounts in essential road maintenance schemes, our bridge strengthening programme and ancillary assets and increasing the resilience of the network to unplanned events such as flooding and high winds. We are focussing our investments on the highest priority safety critical maintenance of our trunk road network, ensuring resilience to severe weather events and to deliver on our commitment to maintain a safe and reliable trunk road network.

In respect of local roads, the vast majority of funding from the Scottish Government is provided via a block grant and we do not stipulate how local authorities should utilise their individual allocations. It is therefore the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budget and to allocate the financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities. The 2024-25 Local Government settlement increased local authorities share of the budget and delivered record funding of over £14 billion, a real terms increase of 2.5%.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.