Correspondence between Transport Scotland and Glasgow City Council relating to road user and congestion charging and Clyde Tunnel tolling: EIR release

Information requested

You asked for the following information, covering the period 1 January 2025 to the date of your request (4th June):

1. Copies of any correspondence between Transport Scotland and Glasgow City Council relating to:

• road user charging;
• congestion charging;
• Clyde Tunnel tolling;
• workplace parking levies.

2. Copies of any meeting minutes, agendas or notes held by Transport Scotland relating to discussions with Glasgow City Council concerning the above matters.

3. Copies of any reports, briefing papers, presentations or discussion papers held by Transport Scotland that specifically reference potential road user charging, congestion charging or Clyde Tunnel tolling in Glasgow.

4. Please confirm whether Transport Scotland has undertaken, commissioned or received any assessment, modelling or analysis relating to potential road user charging in Glasgow.

If so, please provide copies of the final documents held.

5. Please confirm whether Transport Scotland has provided any funding or financial support to Glasgow City Council for work relating to road user charging, congestion charging or Clyde Tunnel tolling. If so, please provide details.

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.

The Transport (Scotland) Act 2001, which was brought into statute by a previous Parliament, provides discretionary powers for local authorities to implement local road user charging schemes. As outlined in the updated Policy Statement on car use reduction, the Scottish Government is taking forward a Regulatory Check of these powers to ensure they remain fit for purpose. As part of this, a working group has been set up to look at these regulations. This includes key stakeholders from COSLA, SCOTS, Regional Transport Partnerships, and local authorities, including Glasgow City Council. The work of this group is limited in scope to consideration of the technical detail contained in primary and secondary legislation, it is for local authorities themselves to consider and develop any proposed schemes.

To date, Transport Scotland has not received notification of any proposed Road User Charging scheme or Workplace Parking Licensing (WPL) scheme by Glasgow City Council. Furthermore, we have not been involved in the design, development, or implementation of any such scheme.

The Scottish Government’s previous responses in relation to Road User Charging, including the potential introduction of tolls for the Clyde Tunnel, have been set out in answers to Parliamentary Questions. These are publicly available, form part of the public record, and can be accessed via the links below (listed from most recent to least recent):

• S7W-00381;
• S6W-41574;
• S6W-41575;
• S6W-41576;
• S6O-05047;
• S6W-40458;
• S6W-38195;
• S6W-31718;
• S6O-02571;
• S6W-21256;
• S6W-16549; and
• S6W-15126.

You may wish to contact Glasgow City Council directly, as it may hold information relevant to your request. Information on how to submit an information request to Glasgow City Council is available at: https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/article/1645/Making-a-Freedom-of-Information-Request

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.

EIR 202600520109 - Information Released - ANNEX A and ANNEX B

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