Costs breakdown for National Concessionary Travel Schemes: FOI release

Information requested

Full costs of running all the free bus schemes offered by Transport Scotland since 2021, with a breakdown per scheme, per year, and what the money was used for?

Response

The tables below provides the costs for the National Concessionary Travel Schemes from 2021/22 to 2024/25.

Please note that, as operators have up to 12 months to claim for journey reimbursement, some figures may be subject to change. It should also be noted that some of the operating costs are incurred for both schemes and cannot be split, these costs are included within the operating costs listed in the table for the Older and Disabled Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme.

Older and Disabled Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme

Financial year	Operator reimbursement costs	Operating costs	Total
2021/2022	222,647,748.42	2,571,615.18	225,219,363.60
2022/2023	156,039,056.56	3,045,445.97	159,084,502.53
2023/2024	187,960,183.37	3,299,801.03	191,259,984.40
2024/2025	203,827,949.43	3,186,395.00	207,014,344.43

Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme

Financial year	Operator reimbursement costs	Operating costs	Total
2021/2022	5,968,450.72	3,838,926.19	9,807,376.91
2022/2023	107,810,797.60	399,486.57	108,210,284.17
2023/2024	164,222,519.17	935,309.52	165,157,828.69
2024/2025	189,969,929.81	1,134,731.05	191,104,660.86

About FOI

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.