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Under the National Concessionary Bus Travel Scheme for Older and Disabled People, a holder of a +1 National Entitlement Card is entitled to free bus travel for themselves and a companion travelling together with them for the same journey on local registered and long distance scheduled bus journeys throughout Scotland. Booking arrangements generally only apply to longer distance scheduled bus services and are the responsibility of the bus operator.

Under the National Concessionary Bus Travel Scheme for Older and Disabled People, a holder of a +1 National Entitlement Card is entitled to free bus travel for themselves and a companion travelling together with them for the same journey on local registered and long distance scheduled bus journeys throughout Scotland.

Local authorities have discretion to provide local non-bus travel concessions for their residents. Public Transport operators may also provide travel concessions on their services for certain groups of people as part of their own commercial operations. The extent and level of any concessions offered are for individual local authorities and public transport operators to determine.

As of June 2021, there are 114,738 registered companion (+1) cardholders eligible to access the Scotland-Wide Free Bus Travel Scheme for Older and Disabled People (the Scheme).

The Scheme is administered by Transport Scotland on behalf on the Scottish Government. In 2019-20 the cost of the Scheme was around £215 million. We have used figures for 2019-20 as this is the most recent pre-covid financial year where typical journey numbers have been undertaken.

Senior Transport Scotland Ferries Unit officials have met specifically with representatives of Pentland Ferries five times since January 2019.

Four of these were to discuss Covid financial impacts on Pentland Ferries and one was to discuss work seeking to implement Road Equivalent Tariff on ferry services to the Northern Isles. These were attended by TS Ferries Staff and representatives from Pentland Ferries.

CMAL have met with Pentland Ferries once since January 2019 while inspecting the MV Pentalina.

From Monday 19 July, all parts of Scotland moved to level 0. Domestic cruises are able to operate from this date. We have worked closely with the industry to keep them informed of the agreed conditions that would allow operations once again. Our guidance on domestic cruising can be found here: Coronavirus (COVID-19): travel and transport - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The primary responsibility for the prevention and investigation of theft lies with Police Scotland. The Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 stipulates that the Chief Constable of Police Scotland is responsible for the policing of Scotland, and is accountable to the Scottish Police Authority for this, rather than to Scottish Ministers directly.

The Scottish Government supports Police Scotland by assisting in any legislative requirements they identify as necessary in their efforts to prevent and detect theft. The Microchipping of Dogs (Scotland) Regulations 2016 came into force on 29 January 2016, making it a statutory requirement for all dogs over the age of 8 weeks to be identifiable with an implanted microchip which is registered on a database from which Police and local authority officers can request information on owners.

During 2020 the Scottish Government, in partnership with local authorities, MOD and veterans organisations, promoted and distributed Armed Forces and veterans awareness training to all local authorities in Scotland via the network of Armed Forces Champions. The e-learning is a simple, user-friendly resource which aims to raise awareness and understanding of the Armed Forces Covenant, how it is implemented in the community and how the principles should be applied at a local level. The training package also provides sources of further information and support for the Armed Forces and veterans community. Consideration is being given to expanding this across other front-line service providers including the NHS. We continue to engage with Champions and Local Authorities to determine the effectiveness of this training and ensure that it has been made available to frontline staff.

In addition, Veterans Scotland has received funding from the Forces in Mind Trust to enable engagement with decision makers in statutory and third sector organisations across Scotland. Through this engagement, supported by the Scottish Government, Veterans Scotland seeks both to inform partners about the needs of those preparing to leave the Armed Forces and of the veterans community and also to encourage those partners to ensure that they are equipped to meet their obligations under the Covenant. As part of this work, Veterans Scotland promotes and distributes e-copies of the Forces in Mind Trust’s ‘Our Community – Our Covenant’, an accessible tool that provides practical guidance.

Whilst the UK Government (UKG) are the principle contract owners and managers of the Managed Quarantine Service (MQS) and its suppliers; the Scottish Government acts as officiate of these contracts with the service providers. The close working relationship the Scottish Government fosters with hotel and security facility teams enables any matters arising to be de-escalated quickly. There is a protocol in place with Police Scotland to assist, where appropriate.

The Scottish Government is not aware of any crimes of any nature being recorded in relation to managed isolation guests in Scotland.

The contracts for the hotels, security and Corporate Travel Management are owned and managed by the UK Government. Scottish Government officials acts as officiate of these contracts with the service providers, but do not have any contractual powers.

Officials foster extremely good relationships with and maintain regular contact with the network of managed isolation facilities in Scotland, including the hotel and security teams and the service provider Corporate Travel Management (CTM). This enables issues flagged by users of these services to be resolved quickly. Issues which cannot be dealt with by Scottish Government and the network of facilities locally are escalated to the UKG.

The International Passenger Coordination Team have agreed a protocol with Police Scotland to enable the facility team to contact them, when appropriate to do so. We have not had any reports of crimes being committed against guests.

Scottish Government officials met with representatives of the independent brewing sector on 2 July 2021. We will consider their views alongside the findings of the Gateway Review into Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme.