Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Official Report 615KB pdf

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Public Petitions

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Wheelchair Users (Improvements to Bus Travel) (PE1866)

Agenda item 8 is consideration of a petition. PE1866 is on introducing legislation to improve bus travel for wheelchair users.

I refer members to paper 6, which provides some background information and outlines possible options.

The petition, which was submitted by Daryl Cooper in May 2021, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to introduce legislation to ensure that wheelchair users are able to face frontwards when travelling on a bus.

I invite views and comments from committee members on the petition and the options that have been set out in paragraph 13 of paper 6.

We should look at the issue. It was not one that I was necessarily familiar with, but it is quite clear from the petition that it impacts on a number of people.

There might well be understandable explanations for the situation, but I do not think that things are entirely clear. Although the background paper that we have received has been very helpful, I do not want the petition to be readily dismissed, simply because we do not fully understand the reasons for the current requirements. I recognise the reserved nature of some of this matter, but that should not prevent us taking a closer look at it.

Once we have heard from other members, I will make a couple of suggestions.

I agree with the deputy convener. We do not know the answers to some questions, some of which might be technical in nature in relation to design, so we should definitely ask those questions.

I pay tribute to Daryl Cooper for lodging the petition in Parliament. It was really good that the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee—I hope that I have the title correct now—reached out to our MSP colleague Pam Duncan-Glancy, who is a wheelchair user. She was able to share her lived experience in relation to the front-facing issue and the limit of only one wheelchair user being able to use any given service. She gave the example of her and her husband not being able to travel together, which got me thinking about people with caring responsibilities and people with children not being able to travel together.

We could write to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to understand how local authorities intend to use the powers that are available to them under the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019. There are therefore things that we could pursue.

This is a voluntary interest of mine, but I should say that I am patron of Disability Equality Scotland. The committee can therefore understand why I am keen for us to do what we can to get some answers and, I hope, some progress for people.

When I read the paper, I struggled, as all committee members probably did, to understand whether there is an industry norm in how buses are laid out for wheelchair users. I do not know whether the lay-out allows them to face forwards or whether they have to face the rear or sideways. I would like to know whether there are safety implications to how buses are laid out, so it would be useful to find out more information on that.

As Monica Lennon suggested, it would be helpful to write to COSLA to find out how local authorities might wish to use their new powers under the 2019 act regarding bus service improvement partnerships. We could see whether they have any plans in that regard.

Given that the United Kingdom Government has confirmed that it will complete a review of the Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations 2000 by 2023, we could write to the Department for Transport to highlight the concerns that the petitioner has raised about the rules. We could ask it to bear those concerns in mind and to be clear about whether there are regulations that relate to the issue.

Once we have that information, we could consider the petition in more depth, with more knowledge and understanding than we have at the moment.

Are members content for the clerks and me to work through that and for us to come back to the committee in due course?

Members indicated agreement.

That will be useful. I thank the petitioner for bringing the issue to our attention.

That concludes the public part of the meeting.

11:28 Meeting continued in private until 12:22.