The Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee will conclude its work this Parliament in March 2026 ahead of the next Scottish Parliament election. So the Committee has time to complete its work, it has agreed not to consider petitions submitted after 10 October.
The Committee will continue to meet but given the volume of petitions and agreed work programme it is unlikely that the Committee would be able to meaningfully progress work on petitions submitted after 10 October ahead of the election. Petitions lodged after this date will not fall when the Parliament is dissolved and will be for the successor committee to consider in the new session.
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Closed petition PE2116: Accelerate the implementation of bus franchising powers
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to improve the process for implementing the bus franchising powers contained in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 by:
introducing, without delay, the regulations and statutory guidance required to give bus franchising powers full effect
amending the 2019 Act to remove the requirement for proposed franchising frameworks to be approved by a panel appointed by the traffic commissioner, instead empowering Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs) to have the final say on approving proposals
providing additional funding to help support RTPs in preparing franchising frameworks and assisting them with initial set-up costs once frameworks are approved.
Background information
There is widespread consensus across the UK that the policy of bus deregulation (implemented in 1986) has failed to deliver the integrated and affordable public transport urgently required to meet climate targets and reduce inequalities.
Due to severe delays enacting the franchising powers in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019, Transport Scotland’s failure to support RTPs to use these powers, as well as cuts to RTPs budgets, Scotland now lags far behind England and Wales in the process of re-regulation.
We believe the requirement of an independent panel to approve proposals in Scotland is an unnecessary step, which risks wasting many more years and approx. £15million per RTP, if proposals are rejected. The legislation must be simplified to give the democratically-accountable RTP Boards the final say.
This petition was considered by the Scottish Parliament
5,722 signatures