Accessible Vehicle and Equipment Scheme quarterly meeting minutes: March 2025

Attendees and apologies

Attendees from the Scottish Government 

• David George, Chair, Head of Social Security Policy Business Development and Strategy

• Natalie McCrindle, Head of Procurement and Commercial, Social Security Scotland

• Norma Mackenzie, Supplier Relationship Manager, Social Security Scotland
• Angela Munro, Administration Assistant

Attendees from Motability Foundation and Motability Operations

• Gavin Thomson, COO for Scotland, Motability Operations

• Bernie Cowper, Oversight Manager, the Motability Foundation

• Kenny Morton, Motability Operations

Apologies 

• Andrew Miller, CEO, Motability Operations
• Edward Curwen, Innovation Manager, Motability Operations
• Nigel Fletcher, CEO, The Motability Foundation
• Shonagh Martin, Disability Benefits Policy Officer, Scottish Government
• Paul Feeney, Disability Benefits Senior Policy Officer
   

Items and actions

Welcome

The Chair, David George welcomed members to the twelfth Accessible Vehicle and Equipment (AVE) Scheme quarterly meeting.

Previous meeting minutes and action point update

The minutes from the previous meeting were agreed and formally approved by the group. 

The following updates were given on the previous actions.

Action 1: Add WAVs to the Motability Operations (MO) update on agenda at next meeting.

MO confirmed at the last meeting that it has been working on their Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles (WAV) strategy. MO will provide an update on WAVs during the MO update agenda item. 

Action 2: Motability Foundation (MF) to share case studies on private and local authority landlords not installing home electric chargers.

MF updated that it is not one of their agreed priorities for its policy team to follow up on and it is directing resources at PAS 1899. 

Scottish Government update 

Officials provided the following Scottish Government updates. 

Redacted

Social Security Scotland Officials asked MO colleagues whether they still want to meet with their Chief Executive David Wallace. Norma Mackenzie will be taking this forward, keeping Policy colleagues updated. MO colleagues agreed to send topics for discussion to officials and hope to meet with David in the next four to six weeks. 

MO asked if the Chair of the Independent Review of Adult Disability Payment (ADP) is on target to release her final report in June 2026. This is to ensure it is aware of any changes which may affect the AVE Scheme. 

Officials said that the ADP Review dates are on target. They will keep Motability colleagues updated but won’t be able to provide an update at the next quarterly meeting. 

MO colleagues asked if there will be any impact coming from the DWP’s Personal Independence Payment changes. They informed that MO’s systems are set up to handle differential benefit rates so if the Scottish Government makes any decisions in line with DWP, the capability is there to make changes. MO said that it would be helpful to understand at the next AVE quarterly meeting if there are any changes to implement. 

Social Security Scotland officials said that we have diverged our benefits so far from DWP and that there is a Scottish Parliamentary Election next year. 

Redacted

Action 3: MO to send topics to Social Security Scotland colleagues for the agenda for their meeting with CEO David Wallace. MO and Norma to keep Policy colleagues copied into emails liaising on the meeting. 

Motability Operations update 

Gavin Thomson, Managing Director for Scotland, Motability Operations provided an operations update on the wider market and an update on WAVs.

Wider market update

MO informed that there are 845,000 customers across UK in the AVE Scheme overall. There has been a slow down in growth and pricing increases across the market may be responsible for this. MO is keeping costs under control where they can. Growth in January/February tends to be low. MO were expecting the growth of the number of vehicles in its fleet to be one million by 2026 but are sceptical of this now.

MO informed that its ICE fleet is up by 8.2 per cent year on year. The ICE used car market is stable. Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) are also starting to increase with the BEV used car market showing signs of improvement. Customer satisfaction in the Scheme is still strong. 

Redacted

MO said that EV manufacturers are asking for change in Government policy. Many brands are making losses, with some manufacturers performing behind the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate targets. There are substantial increases in costs of these cars. Dealerships are under financial pressure which MO is impacted by.

MO noted four key challenges:

• cost pressures
• subdued EV demand
• increased global competition affecting traditional brands
• the possibility of tariffs 

MO also informed that there are also challenges around insurance as premiums have now increased very significantly. It is piloting an RAC roadside management scheme.  

MO said that it has the biggest electric fleet in the UK. Customers will eventually have to choose an EV due to that being the only available model on the market. People who are taking EVs are those who have access to local electric charging points. The main challenge for MO is how to make EVs as usable as ICE cars for those without home charging. 

MO is working on driving a cost reduction and a transformation plan to address cost pressures that are reflected in the increased average Advance Payments. The tender process has started for Scheme Partners for Continuous Mobility (EuropCar incumbent) and Roadside Assistance (RAC incumbent). 

MO is meeting with Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice Shirley-Anne Somerville tomorrow on 12 March 2025.

Officials informed that narrowing inequality is particularly important to Ministers and tackling poverty is one of Scottish Government’s National Outcomes. As people will eventually have to choose an EV, some users may be disadvantaged due to no access to charging points due to their housing. Officials asked if MO intend to raise this with the Cabinet Secretary as she may be interested to hear about the risks to disabled people. As there are also commitments to net zero, Ministers will be interested in help get disadvantaged users into a better position. 

MO is planning to summarise this in its briefing for the Cabinet Secretary. Its biggest challenge is that manufacturers set their production runs 10 years in advance. What manufacturers can do is continue to provide their existing models for longer. MO is also liaising with Transport Scotland on EV charging points away from the home.

Officials said it would be helpful for MO to let the Cabinet Secretary know that it has written to other relevant Ministers to arrange a meeting. It would also be useful to let the Cabinet Secretary know about the risks, particularly to customer satisfaction if people on the AVE Scheme are no longer able to afford being a member. 

MO is focussing on controlling the things it can and giving the best to its customers during this challenging period.  

Officials asked how MO is measuring the success of the RAC roadside management pilot. MO said that there will be limited area pilots then deployment nationwide. The Incident Management team will triage all repair jobs and assign to the dealer/garage that can make the fix within Service Level Agreement targets. The main challenge is that MO customers are not being prioritised by dealerships as MO provide customers with a hire car. Dealers therefore have no incentive to prioritise MO fixes over retail fixes as they make a higher margin on these. This results in high Hire Car costs that are spread across the Scheme. MO’s aim is to get Scheme Users back in their own cars as quickly as possible, to increase Customer Satisfaction and reduce the Continuous Mobility costs. 

Officials informed that the Cabinet Secretary would find this useful to know. 

Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles (WAVs) 

MO informed that they will need longer to work on the WAV strategy as they have experienced some challenges. 

The number of vehicles available for converters are down and pricing is going up while the number of AVE Scheme applications has increased for WAVs. On many WAVs, the physical position of the battery, which is often in the floor, complicates installation of ramp and other access components. Charge ports are also often in the rear quarter which can make it impossible to both open the ramp and plug in the car when reversed into a public charging bay. The costs are high for conversion to make them in a better position for charging. MO is in the process of talking to manufacturers regarding Electric WAVs. They are trying to get the industry to buy into other ways of approaching WAVs. MO also noted that car based vans are coming to the end of their lives and manufacturers are stopping making them. MO is looking at Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) created WAVs.

MF has been working with MO in the understanding that WAVs are critical to provide for disabled people. MF provides grants for WAVs and need to continue this as it is a core thing for disabled people. 

Motability Foundation update 

Bernie Cowper, Oversight Manager, provided an update for the Motability Foundation (MF). 

MF is increasing its oversight capacity. One reason for this is the volatility in the market. Nigel Fletcher, CEO has recently advertised a director post for Director of Oversight and Policy for the whole charity. 

MF is providing grants to AVE Scheme customers as normal. It is finding it challenging to hit the budget due to the increase in WAVs costs and increased demand for these. The average grant for wheelchair WAVs is £30,000 per vehicle. MF is having to look at eligibility criteria more rigorously than in the past. 

Nigel is interested in changing the strategy platform for MF. That will be presented to the board and governors by the end of this March 2025. 

MF is committing £650 million in charity expenditure in total over five years until 2030. 

Scotland Operational update

Kenny Morton provided the Scotland Motability Operations update. 

The size of the MO fleet in Scotland is over 84,000 at the end of Q4 and has grown 2.7 per cent on Q3. This represents 35.4 per cent of the over 238,000 Scottish recipients of the qualifying benefit. There are 76 per cent petrol/diesel cars which has fallen by one per cent since the end of Q3. EVs represent eight per cent of the Scottish fleet which is a record high. 

Customer satisfaction remains high for Scottish customers at 95, the same as the overall rate for the UK. 

The average Advanced Payment paid in Scotland increased this quarter to £1,696, up £65 from Q3 2024. The Advanced Payment customers paid was reduced by the £750 New Vehicle Payment until the end of 2024. 26 per cent of Scottish customers choose a car with either nil Advanced Payment or an Advanced Payment less than £750. 

Tightening of some Scheme Policies is being implemented to mitigate cost increases. These focus on high cost, low benefit areas or bringing the Scheme proposition more in line with retail leasing standards. For example, the number of temporary drivers Scheme users can have on their vehicle was unlimited but next month will be reduced to four.  

MO is piloting RAC roadside and customer home management to reduce the need for dealer repair visits. This is ongoing. MO is also working with KwikFit to on a pilot which delivers MOTs at 33 months which will be more convenient for the Scheme user. Phase one of this pilot begins at the end of March and MO will provide an update on this at the next meeting.

There is growth in MOs senior customer service jobs. Colleagues were going to update the Cabinet Secretary that there will be investment in another 100 jobs but this is at the consultation stages at the moment. 

MO is currently putting planning in place for the introduction of Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance (SADLA). 

They have now sold the first in Scotland of the manual wheelchairs with power add-ons. MO is to do some social media on that at the end of March 2025. 

MO is also moving ahead with home charging pilots which will be transformative to fuel poverty to disabled people. It is also consulting with stakeholders to provide support for people on home heating. 

MO will be publishing a report on accessibility charging. City of Edinburgh council agreed to go ahead on planning for a pilot that doesn’t require all individual scheme users to put in requests for home chargers. 

MO is working with Octopus on a fixed price EV charging solution. This is only available to house owners, and the trial is exclusive to MO. There will be a £10 per month flat fee for overnight charging. This will become public in May 2025. 

Social Security Scotland officials informed that it would be useful to share information on the pilots with Ministers as these provide data and can be replicated. The Cabinet Secretary would have an interest in what could be done to assist with rollout across further Local Authorities in Scotland. It would also be helpful to show how many people are AVE Scheme users in each Local Authority area. Officials said it is helpful for the Cabinet Secretary, particularly when she receives challenge in these areas. 

MO will bring these examples to the Cabinet Secretary during the visit to Motability offices tomorrow, 12 March 2025. 

Any other business and close 

Action 4: Officials to schedule the next AVE quarterly meeting in June/July. 

The Chair closed the meeting.