Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government have a long history of working with local authorities and COSLA to make sure council finances are sustainable and will continue to work with our partners across the public sector to address any budget challenges.

Alongside this, the Scottish Government will continue to work with our partners on how we operate and collaborate on reforming public services to ensure communities across Scotland continue to receive high quality, sustainable public services that they expect and deserve.

The Scottish Government is providing £2.5 million to Cycling Scotland to deliver the Bikeability programme in 2025-26.

Our approach to addressing the shortage of planners is tailored to the Scottish context and pre-dates the Autumn Statement. We are directly investing £850,000 in new talent.

We have secured a path into planning for 48 new student planners through our award winning Future Planners Programme and an additional 30 students are being supported by our bursary scheme as they undertake professionally accredited planning degrees.

In addition, the National Planning Hub is directly supporting planning authorities in the short term to increase capacity. It is providing surge support, expert brokerage and sharing learning and knowledge to bridge any skills gaps. The approach is agile, and designed to be responsive to issues identified by authorities. The National Planning Improvement Champion is also supporting authorities on planning performance.

We will continue to work in partnership with planning authorities and other stakeholders to deliver innovative solutions to increase the capacity and resilience of the Scottish planning service.

The Scottish Government is committed to making it safer and easier for people of all ages and abilities to choose active and sustainable travel.

The focus of active travel delivery at a local level is a matter for each Local Authority, but funding from the Scottish Government comes with a requirement to demonstrate delivery against the First Minister’s priorities.

Through a variety of programmes, including Tier 1 and Tier 2 of the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund, the People and Place Programme and Bikeability, Transport Scotland provides access to funding for Local Authorities that to support safer journeys to and from school.

The effectiveness of these programmes are monitored through individual project monitoring and evaluation at a national level through publications such as the Children’s Walking and Cycling Index, and the Hands up Scotland Survey, that since 2008 has presented information on how pupils across Scotland travel to school and nursery. Earlier this year, Cycling Scotland also published a three year independent evaluation of Bikeability.

Subject to the budget receiving parliamentary approval, in 2026-27 we will continue to work in partnership with Local Authorities and Regional Transport Partnerships to deliver active travel investments in our communities, including through the Active Travel Infrastructure Fund to improve infrastructure, and through our regional People and Place behaviour change programme and Bikeability to provide the skills and knowledge for school pupils to make safe journeys to and from school.

Our funding for active travel infrastructure does not have as a specific condition the requirement to evaluate the impact of reducing accidents involving cycling, and so it is not possible to provide figures related to the full active travel investment in North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire.

There were 395 pedal cycle casualties in 2024, 10 less than the previous year. The number of seriously injured pedal cycle casualties in 2024 was 158. There were 3 pedal cycle fatalities in 2024, 4 less than 2023. Since 2014 there has been a 56% decrease in all pedal cycle casualties.

However, since 2023-24, Local Authorities have received funding from Transport Scotland through the Road Safety Improvement Fund (RSIF) for targeted road safety schemes to reduce road-related risks and casualties. £2m of the funding (provided from the Sustainable and Active Travel budget) is dedicated to promoting safe active travel journeys on the local road network.

This is the third year of the RSIF and the amounts allocated to both North and South Lanarkshire can be found in the following table:

The Scottish Government is providing £2.5 million to Cycling Scotland to deliver the Bikeability programme in 2025-26.

Road Safety Scotland (RSS) believes road safety is a lifelong-learning skill and good attitudes and behaviours must be nurtured from an early age, through both the availability of high-quality resources, and good example from others. To this end, RSS has developed a full suite of learning resources for 3-18 year-olds, linked to Curriculum for Excellence.

These include: Go Safe with Ziggy (early years); Road Stars (primary school); the Junior Road Safety Officer scheme (peer resource for upper primary); Your Call (lower secondary) and Crash Magnets (upper secondary). These resources are regularly reviewed and developed or renewed as appropriate. RSS is currently reviewing the suitability of its resources for children and young people with mild-to-moderate Additional Support Needs, and developing a new resource for children and young people with complex Additional Support Needs. In addition, the secondary resources (Your Call and Crash Magnets) are currently being renewed and will be replace by one single resource in Spring 2026. All RSS resources are hosted on the RSS website which can be accessed via Home - Road Safety Scotland.

Each school will have instructions and messaging unique to their local area within their school travel plans, which will include messaging around e-bikes and e-scooters.

Legislation surrounding the use of e-bikes and e-scooters is a reserved matter for the UK Government.

For an e-bike to be legal for use in the UK, they must be an electrically assisted pedal cycle, with the electric motor unable to propel the bike when travelling at more than 15.5mph.

It is illegal to ride an e-scooter on a public road, pavement, cycle paths, shared paths or any public place in Scotland. It is only lawful to use e-scooters on private land with the landowner’s permission.

It is every road and path users’ responsibility to respect others and the Highway Code outlines both rules and guidance for everyone.

Prior to Christmas, and working with the NHS, Police Scotland published advice warning parents against gifting e-scooters - Scots parents warned against gifting e-scooters after spate of serious injuries | STV News.

This builds on advice published last year on e-bikes that provided clarity on the standards required to be permitted to ride on public roads and remains relevant today.

Members of the public who are seeking clarity on the standards required to ride on public roads can visit Riding an electric bike: the rules - GOV.UK.

Given the increasing prevalence of illegal e-scooters on our roads, and as part of our policy development work, Transport Scotland plans to investigate the potential for a public awareness campaign in 2026.

I refer the member to answer to question S6W-32672 on 9 January 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

Transport Scotland is also undertaking policy development work on e-scooters, part of which will involve stakeholder engagement and public consultation which will include assessment of their impact on the perceived safety to older people and those with disabilities.