Total amount of electric cars used by Ministers: FOI release

Information requested

How many of ministers in your government including yourself (First Minister) have access to electric vehicles, how many are being used at moment, if any how are they financed, do ministers pay for themselves or through government scheme, who is funding the installation of
thousands of charging points.

Response

The First Ministers transport is provided by Police Scotland, who currently use plug in hybrid vehicles (PHEV’s).

All other Ministers use the Government Car Service (GCS).

Ministers are not allocated a specific car and driver, all resources are pooled and available for use by all. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, cars were often used by multiple Ministers throughout the day.The GCS currently operate 11 electric vehicles (EV’s) and the remaining vehicles on the fleet are plugin hybrid’s (PHEV’s).

The GCS is an operational unit within the Scottish Government. All of the vehicles used by the service, including those used by Police Scotland to transport the First Minister, are procured through central contracts in line with operational decisions about the composition of the fleet. Purchase and servicing costs are met from the SG’s operational budgets.

The Scottish Government provides funding under a number of schemes to enable installation of electric vehicle charging points. These include schemes that invest in the Charge Place Scotland electric vehicle charging network for public use and schemes that support charging infrastructure to enable decarbonisation of public and private sector fleet vehicles.

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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 http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.