National Entitlement Cards (NEC) / Young Scot travel suspension statistics: FOI release

Information requested

How many National Entitlement Cards (NEC) or Young Scot NECs, allowing for free bus travel for 5-21 year olds, have been revoked or suspended due to behaviour of card holders, since the introduction of the scheme in January 2022.

Please make clear how many have been suspended and how many have been permanently revoked. If possible, please also provide a breakdown of the broad reasons for the cards being revoked. For example, how many were due to assaults on drivers, assaults on passengers, verbal abuse, etc.

Response

The answer to your question is that there have been 4 cardholders in the YP scheme suspended since January 2022 to date. These were all due to fraudulent misuse of the scheme.

Transport Scotland has a fraud policy and any person(s) found to be misusing any aspect of the scheme may have their entitlement to free bus travel suspended. Incidents of misuse may also be reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

The legislation underpinning the current national concessionary travel scheme does not provide a clear mechanism for consideration of removal of travel cards for antisocial behaviour. However, we take the issue of safety on public transport very seriously. Bus operators can already restrict access to their services in line with their own conditions of carriage and Transport Scotland are working closely with relevant stakeholders to develop further of effective, appropriate and enforceable deterrents to tackle antisocial behaviour on the bus network.

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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.