Transport Scotland - ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) charge points information: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
Information requested
1. The reliability data held by ChargePlace Scotland for public EV chargers in the Falkirk Council area over the past 12 months, including uptime, fault frequency and average downtime.
2. The number of reported faults for charging points in Falkirk during that period.
3. Any charging locations in Falkirk where recurring or repeated faults have been identified.
4. The average time taken for faults in Falkirk to be resolved once reported.
5. How ChargePlace Scotland shares fault information with charge point owners, maintenance providers and Falkirk Council.
6. What escalation process is in place when a charger remains out of service for an extended period.
7. What steps are being taken to improve user communication when chargers are unavailable or awaiting repair. I would also be grateful if you could clarify the respective responsibilities of ChargePlace Scotland, the charge point owner and maintenance contractors when faults are reported through your platform.
Response
I enclose a copy of some of the information requested.
It may be helpful to provide background information on the ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) network. To promote the development of public EV charging ahead of need, since 2011 Scottish Ministers have provided grant funding to a wide range of public, private and third sector organisations to install charge points for public use. As part of the grant conditions those charge points were added to the CPS network.
The charge points on CPS are owned by the respective organisations that received grant funding. It is those organisations that own the charge points on the CPS network and which are responsible for their ongoing maintenance and performance.
The purpose of CPS is to provide ‘charge point operator’ services that allow EV drivers to locate, use and pay for charging sessions on the CPS network. CPS detects and records faults; carries out basic first-line fault resolution when feasible; and to raises fault tickets with charge point owners and their hardware supplier(s) who are themselves responsible for maintenance and repair.
Note that the public charge points hosted on the CPS network account for just 33% of public EV chargers in Scotland according to the latest independently verified EV infrastructure statistics. The remainder are owned and operated by a wide range of commercial charge point operators.
This EIR response only provides information relating to charge points on the CPS network. I have also assumed that all of your questions relate to charge points on the public charging network as opposed to charge points restricted to private users, for examples those located at workplaces, guest/customer car parks and at domestic properties.
For your reference I have enclosed a document titled ‘Falkirk Asset Register’ which includes all public CPS charge points in the Falkirk local authority area as of 15 May 2026.
Some of the information you have requested is available on the CPS website:
Monthly Charge Point Performance – Charge Place Scotland
Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.
I will now answer your questions in turn.
1. The reliability data held by ChargePlace Scotland for public EV chargers in the Falkirk Council area over the past 12 months, including uptime, fault frequency and average downtime
Using the Monthly Charge Point Performance link - You will see that monthly ‘uptime’ on the network as a whole is usually over 99%.
The monthly ‘Charge Point Report’ can be filtered on Falkirk local authority using column D. Column C shows reliability data for all the charge points for this month and can be used to calculate the monthly average. Repeating this process for each of the previous 12 months will provide you with the information you require.
For example, if you download ‘April Charge Point Report’ and select Falkirk in column D you can use a simple excel average function to get the average from Column C, reliability. For April this is 99.22%.
A specific ‘fault frequency’ figure is not recorded. However, if you open ‘April Ticket Breakdown’ at the link above you can cross reference column B ‘Charge Point ID’ with column B of the ‘Falkirk Asset Register’ to get more details about charge points with an associated ‘fault ticket’.
Data on ‘average downtime’ can be calculated by cross referencing column E ‘date reported’ and column G ‘closed date’ of the monthly ticket breakdown spreadsheet. These fields show details of when faults were opened and closed. You can then repeat this process for the past 12 months to get the information you require.
Please be advised that CPS ‘fault tickets’ cover many different scenarios and do not necessarily relate to issues that affect the operation of the charging infrastructure itself, for example, it could relate to lighting at the site. Some faults may be reported by more than one member of the public and therefore each recorded ticket is not necessarily a unique instance.
A ‘communications transmission error’ is not considered to be a ‘fault’ as the charge point itself may be in good working order. This often relates to localised mobile telecommunications issues that can affect connectivity between the charge point and the charge point operator. This follows the same definition used to calculate ‘reliability’ in the UK Public Charge Point Regulations 2023.
Please note that the CPS network is in a period of transition and is winding down in advance of the current contract expiring in 2027. As such, there may have been more charge points in the Falkirk area a year ago than there are now. I have enclosed a further document ‘August 2025 Asset Register Excerpt FALKIRK’. If you do not see a charge point on the current asset register you may wish to check the older asset register to view charge points that have since migrated to new charge point operators.
The asset register may change on a daily basis to reflect new commissions, decommissions and units migrating off the network. You may wish to regularly consult the following link - Charger Network Updates Across Scotland – Charge Place Scotland – to keep an eye on public CPS charge points in Falkirk going forward.
2. The number of reported faults for charging points in Falkirk during that period.
Open the link to the Monthly Charge Point Performance – Charge Place Scotland and consult the ‘Ticket Breakdown’ spreadsheet and cross reference the ‘charge point ID’ with the ‘CPID’ column in the attached asset register to identify charge points in the Falkirk area that have had faults. Repeating this process for the past 12 months can be used to obtain an annual figure.
3. Any charging locations in Falkirk where recurring or repeated faults have been identified.
This can be obtained by following the same process detailed under question 2 above.
4. The average time taken for faults in Falkirk to be resolved once reported.
Data on the average time taken for faults to be resolved is not specifically kept, however, it can be calculated using information available on the Monthly Charge Point Performance web page and the ‘Falkirk Asset Register’. This can be obtained by first of all following the same process detailed under question 2 above.
Additionally, in the ‘Ticket Breakdown’ spreadsheet, please see column E ‘date reported’ and column G ‘closed date’. Combining this information will provide you with details of when faults were opened and closed and the time that elapsed.
Although the columns are listed as ‘date reported’ and ‘closed date’ if you click into individual cells you will see that, as well as dates, times are also listed in hour, minute and second format.
5. How ChargePlace Scotland shares fault information with charge point owners, maintenance providers and Falkirk Council.
For questions 5 and 6 please see the attached document ‘CPS Fault Notification Process (Excerpt)’.
Please also see the further document ‘Fault KPI’.
The CPS contract is underpinned by a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as outlined in the ‘Fault KPI’ document. This includes reporting faults to a charge point owner and their chosen hardware maintainer within 30 minutes of a fault being reported.
Another KPI requires the CPS contractor to follow-up with owners after 48 hours if a fault tickets remains open. CPS will continue sending email notifications to a charge point owner and their chosen hardware maintainer if a fault is not resolved promptly.
If no response is received from either the charge point owner or their chosen hardware maintainer within 48 hrs of raising the ticket CPS escalate tickets to Transport Scotland for attention. Please see the attached ‘CPS Fault Notification Process (Excerpt)’ for more information.
Note that Falkirk Council are only notified of faults relating to charge points that the council own. A CPS charge point can be in the Falkirk local authority area but be owned by another organisation and is therefore not the responsibility of Falkirk Council.
6. What escalation process is in place when a charger remains out of service for an extended period
As with question 5 please see the attached ‘CPS Fault Notification Process (Excerpt)'
Please also see the further document ‘Fault KPI’
Tickets are escalated to Transport Scotland after 48 hours. If required, Transport Scotland will make direct contact with the relevant owner and their chosen maintainer to discuss plans for making the necessary repairs. If a charge point is not covered by either a warranty or maintenance contract, CPS will send the owner a list of alternative maintainers that may be able to support the charge point owner. Like Transport Scotland, CPS cannot recommend one maintainer over another and will remain impartial at all times.
Transport Scotland officials also meet regularly with senior ChargePlace Scotland managers to discuss contract KPIs pertaining to multiple aspects of network performance, including fault reporting. For more information on these KPIs please see Charge Point Owners KPIs – Charge Place Scotland.
Fault reporting KPIs for the period of time you are interested in can be viewed here Network Performance – Charge Place Scotland
7. What steps are being taken to improve user communication when chargers are unavailable or awaiting repair.
Users are encouraged to check the CPS web map or the CPS mobile app where they can see the availability status of individual charge points before embarking on a journey. Social media is also used to make drivers aware of both planned and unplanned downtime at any given charge point.
The news section of the ChargePlace Scotland website News – Charge Place Scotland also provides useful information for drivers. A relevant example of works impacting access to charge points was the recent resurfacing of a council car park in Falkirk Town Centre. This was communicated via the CPS website and social media channels in advance of the work taking place.
Website:
Planned Infrastructure Maintenance – Charge Place Scotland
FB: https://www.facebook.com/209776791158190/posts/1481991263936730
X: https://twitter.com/ChargePlaceScot/status/2028858606477627415
Third party EV charging websites will also provide EV drivers with the latest charge point availability information, for example Zap Map.
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Contact
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Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
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