Western Isles of Scotland ferry concession travel queries: FOI release

Information requested

1. The cost to Transport Scotland of providing ferry concession travel in the Western Isles (via Caledonian Macbrayne ferries) for each of the 3 years ending 31 March 2025. For the avoidance of doubt the Western isles refers to the Islands of Lewis, Harris, North and South Uist and Barra.

2. Confirmation of the number of concessionary travel tickets issued compared to the number used for the above periods.

3. A full breakdown of the costs if available on each ferry crossing.

4. The reimbursement to Caledonian Macbrayne during each of the 3-year periods.

5. If possible , please indicate whether these costs fall under national or local concessionary travel schemes.

Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. The reasons why are explained below where appropriate.

In response to your questions:

1. The reimbursements made to Caledonian Macbrayne have been answered separately for question 4 below. There are other scheme operational costs relating to the systems and third parties that we use to operationalise the scheme. However, these can’t be apportioned to a particular scheme/mode.

2. The table below provides the number of cardholders resident in the Western Isles that were issued with ferry vouchers (eligible cardholders are entitled to four single trip ferry vouchers each year, valid from 1 April to 31 March the following year), and also, the number of journeys made using ferry vouchers by Western Isles cardholders for the period requested.

Financial Year	Number of cardholders issued with ferry vouchers	Number of journeys made using ferry vouchers
2022/23	9,865	9,621
2023/24	9,985	13,969
2024/25	10,167	17,536

Please note:

• Figures represent Western Isles Cardholders with valid paper vouchers issued during the financial year stated.
• Vouchers Issued Data Source – National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO).
• NECPO work with stakeholders and partners to carry out regular data cleansing of the customer database which may impact cardholder numbers when records are updated.

3. The data requested is not tracked and we do not hold this information.

4. The table below provides reimbursement data for Concessionary Schemes relating to payments made to Caledonian MacBrayne in respect of the Western Isles (Islands of Lewis, Harris, North and South Uist and Barra), for the period requested:

Financial Year	Reimbursement
2022/23	£160,062.55
2023/24	£148,741.30
2024/25	£192,423.08

Please note that, as operators have up to 12 months to claim for journey reimbursement, some figures may be subject to change.

5. All the data provided relate to the Scottish National Concessionary Travel Schemes. Information regarding any local schemes would be held by the relevant local authority.

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