Scottish Government LEZ compliant vehicles and cost to introduce the LEZ zone policy: EIR release

Information requested

1. To ask the Scottish Government how many vehicles it owns or is in control of through arms-length entities and how many are LEZ compliant.

2. To ask how many vehicles have been converted to LEZ compliance so far and how much it has cost.

3. And to ask how many vehicles are yet to be converted to LEZ compliance and how much that will cost.

4. How much has it so far cost to introduce the LEZ zone policy, This would include all costs including appointment of external contractors over preparation or consideration including feasibility.

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

The answer to your request is:

1) The Scottish Government currently has a fleet of 188 vehicles, with 182 of these compliant with Low Emission Zones (LEZ). A survey of the public sector in 2023 indicated that there are around 30,000 vehicles in the public sector fleet and that 20% of these vehicles are ultra-low or zero emission. Further information on the number of vehicles in the public sector fleet and progress with fleet decarbonisation is available on Transport Scotland's website. LEZ compliant vehicles will include these ultra-low and zero emission vehicles as well as other internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Information on the current number of ICE vehicles that are LEZ compliant would have to be obtained directly from individual public bodies.

2) We have interpreted questions 2 and 3 to mean that you are referring to vehicles owned by the Scottish Government and those the Scottish Government is in control of through arms-length entities. The Scottish Government owns no vehicles that have been converted to be LEZ compliant, so there has been no cost. As the Scottish Government does not hold information on vehicles held by armslength entities this information would have to be requested directly from those organisations.

3) The Scottish Government has 6 fleet vehicles that are not compliant with LEZs, and these will not be converted. Please note that only vehicles that require to be driven within a LEZ need to be compliant. The Scottish Government does not hold LEZ compliance information regarding vehicles held by armslength entities. This information would have to be requested directly from those organisations.

4) We have interpreted question 4 to mean that you are requesting the cost of introducing the LEZ policy, including all costs related to the appointment of external contractors during policy preparation, or consideration, including feasibility. Work on the policy to introduce LEZ began before the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government announcement in 2017. Policy work has taken place over a number of years, and across multiple policy streams and areas involving consultation with multiple stakeholders and interested parties. The Scottish Government therefore does not hold the information you have requested regarding the LEZ policy cost.

If you are interested in LEZ costs associated with local authority funding, and support grants, this previous FOI response which was published on 11 October 2024 may be of interest: Costs for Low Emission Zones: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

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.