Low Emission Zone correspondence and statistics: FOI release
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Information requested
1. How much in total has Transport Scotland/Scottish Government spent on installing Low Emission Zones in Scotland, with a breakdown of costs?
2. On May 9, Fiona Hyslop told the Scottish Parliament: "The number of licensed Glasgow City Council taxis reduced from 1,390 in May 2023 to 1,347 in January 2024. However, that reduction can be attributed to declining public demand for taxis rather than being a direct result of the low-emission zone." - Could you provide the evidence for this statement?
3. Could you provide any estimates Transport Scotland have came up with about how many cars/vehicles will be banned from all LEZs, and how many won't be?
4. Could you supply all minutes/notes from all low emission zone leadership group meetings this year?
5. Could you supply all lessons learned guidance given to councils?
6. Could you supply all minutes/notes from the low emission zone meetings with the four council leaders in Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen?
Response
The answers to your questions are:
1) Transport Scotland / The Scottish Government does not hold information on the total installation costs for LEZs in Scotland. This is because the LEZs in Scotland are installed and operated by the relevant local authorities, not the Scottish Government. I can however advise that the Scottish Government has provided grant funding to local authorities to assist with the introduction of LEZs. The grant funding has allowed for the design and installation of signage, road markings and enforcement equipment. This funding also allowed for associated modelling, assessment, advertising, consultation and sustainable/public transport infrastructure and messaging improvements.
Since 2019 LEZ grant funding totalling £13,170,785 has been provided to local authorities in Scotland to support their LEZs.
The LEZ local authorities are required to report annually on the performance of the LEZ including all costs. Glasgow was the first city to begin enforcement in June 2023 and is the first to produce a report. The annual report for the Glasgow LEZ covering 2023/2024 notes the following: “The Council had incurred total costs related to the LEZ scheme of £2,561,058 by 31st March 2024. Of this, £2,180,315 was attributable to revenue and capital grant funding provided by the Scottish Government. The remaining costs totalling £234,904, incurred whilst the LEZ was operational, were offset against the revenue generated by the scheme….”.
LEZ annual reports for Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh are expected from each of the local authorities later in 2025.
Please also note that there are wider costs to the Scottish Government associated with the LEZ policy overall. 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 regarding the wider LEZ policy cost.
Information regarding LEZ installation costs for each LEZ city can be requested directly from the enforcing authority at the following:
- Aberdeen City Council LEZ - transportstrategy@aberdeencity.gov.uk.
- Dundee City Council LEZ - dundee.lez@dundeecity.gov.uk.
- City Edinburgh Council LEZ - lez@edinburgh.gov.uk.
- Glasgow City Council LEZ - LEZ@glasgow.gov.uk.
2. Glasgow City Council provided 12-month LEZ exemptions to all taxi operators in Glasgow who had a non-compliant vehicle from 1 June 2023 to 31 May 2024, with the result that in January 2024, no taxi operator would have been unable to operate in the LEZ. The reduction in licenced vehicles over the period of May 2023 to January 2024 can therefore reasonably be attributed to operators leaving the trade for other reasons. Meetings with Unions and taxi representatives since 2023 highlighted that there had been a decline in public demand for taxis in recent years, and that taxi operators were leaving the trade as a result.
3. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) primarily use vehicle type, fuel type and date of registration to determine LEZ vehicle compliance. Based on this methodology, the latest available Department for Transport (DfT) licenced vehicle data for Scotland (Vehicles statistics - GOV.UK published in September 2024 for cars / vans, and May 2024 for the other vehicle sectors), indicates the following totals for vehicles registered in Scotland:
|
|
LEZ Compliant |
Non-LEZ |
Exempt |
Total |
|
Cars |
2,130,086 |
442,765 |
18,800 |
2,591,651 |
|
Buses and coaches |
5,171 |
7,104 |
313 |
12,588 |
|
Heavy goods vehicles |
10,195 |
25,922 |
390 |
36,507 |
|
Light goods vehicles |
190,299 |
160,269 |
5,610 |
356,178 |
|
Motorcycles |
|
|
77,700 |
77,700 |
| Other vehicles | 38,285 | 37,090 | 15,000 | 90,375 |
| Total | 2,374,036 | 673,150 | 117,813 | 3,164,999 |
This means that an estimated 2,130,086 cars (over 82%) in Scotland are currently LEZ compliant. Further exemptions apply to Historic vehicles and Blue Badge holder vehicles.
For all licenced vehicles registered in Scotland, the estimated LEZ compliance total is 2,374,036 (over 75%). This increases to over 78.7% when including exempt vehicles and motorcycles as the latter are not restricted from entering LEZs. Over time as new vehicles are purchased and older vehicles scrapped, the percentage of vehicles that can enter LEZs will increase further.
Whilst DVLA data suggests there are in the region of 673,150 licenced vehicles in Scotland (442,765 of which are cars) that are neither LEZ compliant nor exempt, the true figure is likely to be less than this due to the frequency of DVLA data publication.
There are a further 463,901 vehicles in Scotland that have declared a ‘Statutory Off Road Notification’ (SORN) with DVLA. Most of these are anticipated to be non-compliant with LEZs however these are not licenced to be used on the roads and are not included in the above totals.
4) As requested, I attach as separate documents, the minutes from all of the 2024 Low Emission Zone Leadership Group meetings:
- LEZ Leadership Group Minutes – Feb 2024
- LEZ Leadership Group Minutes – May 2024
- LEZ Leadership Group Minutes – Sep 2024
5. As requested, I attach as a separate document, the ‘lessons learned’ guidance that has been shared with city councils:
- Lessons Learned from Glasgow LEZ (Feb 2024).pdf
6. The Scottish Government does not hold LEZ meetings with the four council leaders of Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, as the mechanism for engagement around LEZ is with senior council officials through the LEZ Leadership Group. The minutes from these meetings are being released as per your ask in question 4.
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