Decarbonising Buses and Zero Emission Bus Market Transition Scheme: EIR release

Information requested

“1. How many diesel buses remain active in Scotland and how many electric buses are active in Scotland?

2. How many diesel buses have been taken off the road/adapted to not be diesel buses in 2021 and 2022?

3. How much money is the Scottish government providing to help bus operators scrap diesel buses?

4. How much has the government estimated it will cost to get rid of all diesel buses?

5. How much of the £500,000 Zero Emission Bus Market Transition Scheme has been handed out so far? Breakdown of who applied and how much they got?”

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.

Regarding question 1, the information you have requested is available from the Department for Transport statistics relating to vehicles operated by local bus operators. These include figures for Scotland (see table BUS0609). Similarly, the Department for Transport publishes statistics regarding the number of vehicles of different body and fuel types registered in Scotland (see tables VEH0105 and VEH0142).

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Regarding questions 2, 3, and 4; while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reasons why that exception applies are explained in the Annex to this letter.

Regarding question 5, the answer to your question is that the Zero Emission Bus Market Transition Scheme, which launched on August 10 2022, aims to provide funding to support SME bus and coach operators; community, home to school, and transport to healthcare bus operators; financiers and other third parties in gaining sufficient understanding and information on the steps required to replace diesel fleets with zero emission alternatives. This will enable bidders to be well positioned to apply for the ScotZEB Phase 2 funding, which is expected to launch early in financial year 2023/24. At the time this information request was received, no applications have been made and no funds allocated. Announcements on which organisations were successful and how much funding they were awarded will be published as and when awards are made, with no longer than 12 weeks between the award and publication on the Energy Saving Trust website.

REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

The Scottish Government does not have the information

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested in regards to the topic of “how many diesel buses have been taken off the roads/adapted to not be diesel in 2021 and 2022” because we do not routinely collect statistics on this topic. With regards to the question of how much the Scottish Government has funded the scrapping of diesel buses, The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because The Scottish Government does not provide funding to help operators ‘scrap’ existing diesel buses. Funding has been provided to support Scottish bus operators transition their fleets to zero emission alternatives to diesel. To date we have awarded £113 million, through the Scottish Ultra Low Emission Bus Scheme, and phase one of the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund, to support bus operators acquire 548 zero emission buses. With regards to the question of how much it may cost to remove all diesel buses, we cannot disclose information which we do not hold.

This exception 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about funding the scrapping of diesel buses, how many buses have been adapted or taken off the roads and the estimated costs to remove all diesel buses from the roads, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

About FOI

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.