Costs breakdown of the National Concessionary Travel Schemes by local authority: FOI release

Information requested

A breakdown of the already published costs of the national scheme by local authority area (I’m aware that this is not distributed by local authorities) and within each local authority area by operator.

1. I’m assuming that journey level data is available for the scheme given how the reimbursement works. Am I correct?

2. Is the point of origin available for all journeys reimbursed under the concessionary scheme?

3. Could a breakdown of the published costs of the scheme by transport company (operator) be provided? This means how much money was paid to each company or operator providing bus journeys in the last two years - the total cost of the scheme is published here https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202500473730/)

Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption under section 33(1)(b) (substantial prejudice to commercial interests) of FOISA applies to that information. The reason why that exemption applies relates to question 3 and explained below.

Please note that you have stated the “published costs of the national scheme by local authority area (I’m aware that this is not distributed by local authorities) and within each local authority area by operator”. The published data you refer to provides overall costs per financial year but is not broken down by local authority area. As previously explained in the response to your FOI reference 202500491405, reimbursements are made by Transport Scotland direct to operators based on actual journeys made. As many service routes travel through multiple local authority areas it is therefore not possible to provide a breakdown of costs paid to operators based on a geographical basis.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​In response to your questions:

1. ​​​​​​​This information is recorded. However, please note this is not publicly available and if requested we would not be able to provide this data as this is commercially sensitive operator information which we are unable to share at this level, and would be subject to an exemption under section 33(1)(b) (substantial prejudice to commercial interests) of FOISA.
2. The point of origin is available for all journeys reimbursed under the National Concessionary Travel Schemes. This would be the stage (a group of bus stops) the customer starts their journey. However, the point of origin may not be recognisable as it is used for operator purposes (e.g. it could state only “ASDA main street”, without any other geographical indicators to understand where that is located). To make this more identifiable (i.e. include a postcode to all these locations), would likely result in an exemption being applied due to the time and resources this would take (12(1) - Complying will exceed the upper cost limit).
3. Please find attached (Annex A) the data requested, providing the reimbursements made broken down by operator for 2023/24 and 2024/25. Please note that an exemption, section 33(1)(b) applies to some of this data. We are unable to provide data for reimbursements of less than £25,000 due to commercial sensitivities and placing that operator at a competitive disadvantage.

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FOI 202500492826 - Information Released - Annex A

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