Misuse of the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme: FOI release

Information requested

• Please provide the total number of instances of fraud for the Under 22s free bus travel, broken down into a table to reflect every financial year since the scheme began on 31 January 2022.
• Please provide the total number of Young Scot passes that have been deactivated for fraudulent use of the Under 22s free bus travel scheme, broken down into a table to reflect every financial year since the scheme began on 31 January 2022.

Response

Please find the information requested in the table below. This data covers the period from the launch of the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme on 31 January 2022 to 31 October 2025, which has seen over 260 million smart journeys made within the Scheme.

Please note the following regarding this data:

• Figures relate to the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme, not Young Scot branded cards specifically as cardholders within the scheme can choose whether to apply for standard National Entitlement Card branding or Young Scot.
• The figures in the ‘Fraud/misuse instances’ column relate to all known Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme card misuse and fraud, including cards returned by Transport Operators.

Financial year	Fraud/misuse instances	Suspensions
2021/22	54	0
2022/23	1,284	0
2023/24	1,773	1
2024/25	1,311	3
2025/26 (as at 31/10/2025)	604	0

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