Transport Scotland - Cost of electric bikes: EIR release

Information requested

How much tax money is spent on e-bikes

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.

For the purposes of responding to this request, and as detailed in the clarification request, I have interpreted that this request relates to funding from the last full financial year and so have included figures from funding from FY2024/25 and the current financial year 2025/26 (noting that this financial year is not yet complete).

Transport Scotland does not directly spend any funds on e-bikes but I enclose the information we do hold on funding for e-bike related projects delivered through regional bodies such as Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs) and Local Authorities (LAs), although please note that this may not represent the totality of e-bike spending by these bodies.

Firstly, our People and Place fund, which supports the delivery of sustainable and active travel interventions to drive behaviour change and encourage modal shift towards active travel, has a placebased delivery model funding Scotland’s seven Regional Transport Partnerships directly. The RTPs work with their Local Authorities and other delivery partners to identify and focus on the priorities in their areas, and to build capacity at a local level.

People and Place funding has been awarded to the Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership (HITRANS) for their 'HI-BIKE' project. HI-BIKE is an on-street e-bike share scheme offering 90 bikes which can be accessed via an app with 24/7 access. Funding totals are as follows:

2024-25
Q1 Report/Claim - £20,819.51 for Hi-Bike
Q2 Report/Claim - £146,463.02 for Hi-Bike
Q3 Report/Claim - £68,587.98 for Hi-Bike
Q4 Report/Claim - £234,871.49 for Hi-Bike

2025-26
Q1 Report/Claim – £277,470.70 for Hi-Bike
Q2 Report/Claim - £34,324.37 for Hi-Bike

Secondly, the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund (ATIF) supports the design, development and delivery of active travel infrastructure across Local Authorities in Scotland. For the year 2025/26, this fund included a grant to North Ayrshire Council of £39,707.00, for which some of this grant contributed to the provision of e-bike Infrastructure on Arran and cycle parking facilities in Eglinton Park, Kilwinning. Again, please note that the Scottish Government does not hold full records of project spending on e-bikes and this may not represent the totality of spending on e-bikes by Local Authorities.

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 as outlined above. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. However, you may wish to contact your relevant Regional Transport Partnership or Local Authority who may be able to help you and provide more specific information on e-bike funding in their region. 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 because we do not hold complete records of what funding has been allocated to e-bike related projects given regional delivery.

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 spending on e-bikes, 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 https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.