 Ie. Felly, ganwtir, iawn i'r cwmorth y byddai cyfle fyddai llochllewaeth, ac mae'n ymarferio, mae'n gael amser Grym dda, ond sy'n i'n gweld dim ei ffocorion a'i gwybod ar dweud o'r 4. Gwyd Caerdydd yn gynllun eu gyfnod y byddai yw hwnnw i'n i'n gael, ac byddai'r byddai'r bwysig i'r gwybod yr hynny i'n gael sy'n i'n gweld dim ei ffocorion o'r 4. I'm pleased today to have published a draft route map setting out how we will reduce car use to help create a fairer greener Scotland. I'm not aware of any other country in the world which is committing to such an ambitious objective. It sits within and alongside our world-leading commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030 and make Scotland a net zero nation by 2045. The commitment is informed by the research on decarbonising transport published last September. The modelling in the research makes clear that to decarbonise travel at the scale and pace needed to meet our statutory emissions targets, we must not only switch to cleaner cars, we must also reduce their overall use. In short, we need to drive down our car use. To achieve a 20% reduction in car kilometres by 2030, we must look across a range of trip types, including short, urban-based trips, as well as longer, leisure-related trips. Just 3 per cent of car trips are over 35 kilometres, yet they are responsible for 30 per cent of the total kilometres travelled. Let's make a disproportionate contribution to total emissions. Understanding how people currently use their cars alongside strong evidence that people want to see more Government action taken to address climate change allows us to start a national conversation, to support people, to do what they tell us they want to do, to cut the distance they travel by car. We've known this for some time, but today we've shifted up a gear and with a much clearer destination in sight, and we begin the work of engaging people to understand the role they can play as individuals and how that can translate into wider benefits in health and wellbeing for themselves, the families and their communities. The route map is underpinned by three guiding principles. The first is that it's collaborative. It has been developed jointly with COSLA and officials have also engaged widely with local authority and regional partners. This partnership matters because change cannot be achieved solely at a national level. It needs local solutions to be identified and delivered. Secondly, the route map is clear that there is not a one-size-fits-all approach. While 20 per cent of the national target does not mean that car usage in rural and remote areas is expected to drop at the same rate as towns and cities, we know that across Scotland access to transport options varies. We will work with and support local partners to identify solutions most appropriate to Scotland's urban, rural and island communities. Thirdly, the principle of a just transition is at the heart of the route map, which will support our work to tackle inequality and child poverty. The route map recognises that there will be some for whom reducing car use, especially in the short term, will be more challenging, including for disabled people and their families. However, we also need to recognise the unfairness of the status quo, a status quo where the car is king and where car use is made too easy at the expense of other fairer options. For people on the lowest incomes, 60 per cent have no access to a car. Of those with a long-term health problem or disability, the figure is 46 per cent, younger and old people, women and certain minority ethnic groups are also less likely to have access to a car, including in rural areas. We know that the worst effects of car use, air and noise pollution, road danger, community severance and congestion fall disproportionately on the most marginalised in our society. Children in Scotland's poorest communities are at three times higher risk of death or injury while out walking or cycling. Reducing car dominance is about climate justice, but it also gets to the heart of social justice. That is why the route map identifies four key behaviours that will frame and underpin our national conversation. We want people to make use of sustainable online options to reduce their need to travel, to choose local destinations to reduce the distance they travel, to switch to walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport where possible. Although the last two years have discouraged that for a very good reason, over time, to combine a trip or share a journey to reduce the number of individual car trips they make if a car remains the only feasible option. Sporing and encouraging people to achieve those changes forms the basis of the 30-plus interventions identified in the route map. Some of those are already under way, including providing free bus travel for people aged under 22, which, from the end of this month, will enable more children, young people and their families to choose to travel by local bus. We are reaching 100 per cent broadband commitment to provide super-fast broadband access for every home and business in Scotland to help to reduce the need to travel. Other actions will take longer, but our commitment is backed up by significant long-term investments such as ensuring that at least 10 per cent of the total transport budget goes on active travel by 2024-25, helping more people to walk, wheel or cycle instead of drive. However, we cannot escape the scale of the challenge and must acknowledge that changing decades of belief and behaviour requires a mix of infrastructure, incentivisation and regulatory actions, some of which we still need to explore, test and apply. In 2019, we provided local authorities with a new discretionary power to set up workplace parking, licensing schemes which can reduce congestion, improve air quality and reduce emissions. The regulations that enable local authorities to use those powers were laid in Parliament yesterday. No one person or agency carries all the responsibility to make change happen. Transport demand derys from other factors where people live, work, learn and access goods and services are all key to their need to travel. We need to use national and local government powers and responsibilities to reduce people's need to travel by providing better local access to goods and services, leisure opportunities and social connections, flexible and remote working approaches and more sustainable travel options for those who need to travel longer distances. Implementing an integrated, accessible and affordable public transport system and improved local infrastructure throughout Scotland was identified by Scotland's climate assembly as one of its top five goals. The route map sets out the actions that we are taking here, including the fair fares review, which will consider options for change against a background where the costs of car travel are declining and public transport costs are increasing. In short, we are already committed to finding ways to make alternative travel modes more attractive and supporting people to use the car less. We want this work to be as inclusive as possible. We want to empower everyone to do what they can to reduce their car use and help climate change, as well as ensuring that as many people as possible benefit from the individual and community-led impacts of their actions. However, we do not have control of all the levers that are needed to achieve this. Fuel duty and vehicle excise duty remain reserved to the UK Government, which has at least acknowledged that, as we transition away from fossil fuels, changes to our tax system will be required. We will continue to press the UK Government for constructive dialogue on what it plans to replace those with, with the best solution. Of course, it would be for the UK Government to scrap those duties and wholly devolve the powers to Scotland so that we can design and deliver fiscal solutions that best meet Scotland's needs and interests, but no part of the UK is the transport fiscal setup credible. That is why, alongside those efforts, we will commission research to explore equitable options for demand management to discourage car use, while also encouraging fewer journeys to be taken by car and for more journeys to be taken by public and active transport options. That includes pricing and the cost of motoring. At this stage, we cannot and we should not roll anything out. Transport remains our biggest emitting sector with cars responsible for most transport emissions. To reduce these emissions requires bold and radical action. This route might enable us to meet that challenge with a clear end point in sight. While there are simple changes, we can make achieving such a significant shift for so many of us is not going to be easy, but we know it can be done. Look at previous successes like the indoor smoking ban and the prize is worth having. Safer roads, reduced pollution, more space in neighbourhoods for other users, better physical and mental health. Getting this right is win, win, win, win. We will now consult publicly on the route map kickstarting this critical, wider national conversation that we need to have on car use. That conversation must become a crucial shared national endeavour where everyone feels empowered to change their habits, comfortable that they have affordables, sustainable alternative options to use to get around and confident that they know their actions or benefit in their own, their families and their community's health and wellbeing. In doing so, we will all be playing our part helping Scotland contribute to cutting emissions, limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees and tackling climate change. Presiding Officer. Thank you. The minister will now take questions on the issues raised in his statement and I intend to allow 20 minutes for questions after which we will move on to the next item of business. It would be helpful if those members who wish to ask a question were to press the request-to-speak button now or enter our in-to-chat function now. I call on Graham Simpson. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I thank the minister for advance sight of the statement. I would describe it as a starting point. I think there is stuff in there which could be up for discussion and I look forward to doing just that when I have my next meeting with the minister. However, like many government documents, it's full of warm words but little in a way of meaningful action. The first question that I would have is what is the 20 per cent reduction in car, I will use the term, miles because that's what we deal with in this country, not kilometres. What is that based on? Perhaps the minister could tell us that. Because for many people in Scotland, I think the minister knows this, he lives in a rural part of the country, the car is a necessity. So where does that 20 per cent come from? If we're going to target urban areas more than rural areas, what will be the difference between urban and rural? If we want to get people out of cars, we need to give them an alternative. That alternative could be active travel and very much supportive of spending on that. Or it could be public transport. We've seen an increase in rail fares announced, service cuts, we've seen no meaningful reform to the bus system. So what does the minister have to say about that? How is that encouraging people onto public transport? Also, we've had vague promises for years for a national smart card for public transport. No sign of that yet. And yet delegates to COP26 were able to have one. So if it's good for them, why is it not good for the rest of the country? When are we going to get that national smart card? Finally, near the end of the minister's statement, he got in a mention of fuel duty. Of course we've had an 11-year freeze on fuel duty. The minister says he wants to take control of that. Is he suggesting that we end the freeze? What is he suggesting? What does he want to replace that with? Perhaps he can tell us. Minister. I accept that this is a starting point. That's exactly what it is. It kicks off the discussion. But with a lot more to it than I think Mr Simpson acknowledged there, there are plenty of actions under way and there are plenty of actions highlighted in the document. The 20 per cent car kilometre cut is what's been determined to represent a meaningful and necessary contribution to tackling wider transport emissions. I think I've acknowledged in opening that there is that discrepancy between what's realistic to expect from rural dwellers set against urban dwellers and he's right, I represent a rural area but although there are more remote and rural areas in Scotland than my one. In terms of how we take this forward, it will be shaped by partnership when he asks about what will the alternative be. We are looking to work in partnership with local transport partnerships and local councils to determine what is the best solution for their area, believing that they can make that contribution and I think we made a good start to that already in terms of COSLA's direct involvement in this. In terms of bus system reform, I'm delighted to hear that Mr Simpson is such a proponent of radical change to the bus system. He has been for some time, so let me acknowledge that and welcome it in the same as Mr Smith over there. I too am in that space and I look forward in the coming year and beyond to using the powers and the transport act to see what we can do here to change and improve the bus system. In terms of the national smart card, that work continues to be progressed, we have made some progress and we have much more to do. In the subject of fuel duty, his own UK Government has acknowledged that maintaining the current approach really isn't an option. What we want to do is work with them, although we would rather have the powers here, to design something that is fairer all round but recognises the pressing need to drive down car usage going forward. Neil Bibby, who is joining us remotely. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I thank the minister for an advanced sight of his statement. This is not a route map to reduce car use, but it is an excuse to hit people in Scotland with a workplace parking tax when they are already suffering from a cost of living crisis. As I have said before, we will not reduce car use unless we have affordable, reliable and accessible public transport, but public transport in Scotland is a joke and, under this transport minister, it is getting worse. If the minister is serious about tackling the climate crisis and helping people to leave the car at home, will he reverse his cuts to ScotRail services? If he is serious, will he reverse his own rip-off rail fares due to take place later this month? If he is serious, will he stop ScotRail's shutting ticket? If he is serious, will he properly fund local councils to take control of bus services? The transport minister does not seem to be very serious about improving public transport. Finally, will he answer the question that he was asked before? When will people see the national smart ticketing card that was promised by the First Minister 10 years ago? Presiding Officer, this is big vision stuff. It is about very significant fundamental behavioural change. I think that it is regrettable if we should rehearse the arguments that we have week in, week out in here. Mr Bibby is very much fixated on rail and the idea that the solution to everything is just to spend more money regardless of usage, patternage and the challenges we face. This is about much more than that. In the context of rail, it is a little bit like the situation that we have at the moment where, going forward, we need to encourage car sharing, but right now that is very challenging because of the pandemic. We see rail playing a very significant part going forward for the rest of this decade and beyond, but right now we face very significant financial challenges that we have to address at the moment. On the subject of the timetable, for example, that is a baseline, a starting point for rebuilding back as we look at what future travel patterns will be because we have to deliver services that meet people's expectations, their needs, when they are going to travel, and that may well change as a result of Covid. On the subject of the smart card, as I said to Mr Simpson, we are making progress in general in regard to smart ticketing and I expect to see significant progress made in the next year to 18 months. John Mason, to be followed by Liam Kerr. Thank you. Glasgow has an incredibly good public transport system, but during Covid people were encouraged to use their cars and I think some are now fearful of going back on to public transport. Can the Government say anything about how they will encourage people back from their cars into public transport? Public transport is critical to this agenda and we all have to acknowledge the impact that Covid-19 has had on passenger numbers and confidence and there will be a period as we emerge from the pandemic when we have to encourage and rebuild the confidence that people have. There is no single magic solution to this challenge, it will take a combination of actions and it will take time. The fair fairs review will support a safe and confident return to public transport as we recover from the pandemic, but there is a viable and sustainable public transport system for the future. The review will also look at a range of discounts and concessory schemes that are currently available on transport modes and consider options to extend those, amend those, whatever, especially against the backdrop where the cost of car travel is declining and public transport costs are increasing. We will obviously be supporting more bus and rail usage in the context of bus through the free travel burden over six days and disabled people. Of course, we are now extending it to the under 22s and we are investing significantly in bus priority and infrastructure and in maintaining and enhancing Scotland's railway and the current control period including rail station investment and future decarbonisation. Liam Kerr to be followed by Gillian Martin. The minister suggests reducing the need to travel by pushing people to online options, but the R100 programme has continually slipped with the northern part delayed to 2027 and £50 million slashed from the digital budget. What impact does the minister project pushing people online will have on high street businesses and local bus services? Given the R100 delays, is he conceding that, once again, the north-east will be left behind as the SNP implements projects in the central belt? That was a rather brave line for a Conservatives to take on the subject of broadband. With the greatest respect to Mr Kerr, it is the UK Government responsibility broadband. No ifs, but maybes. The Scottish Government has had to step in with R100 and the previous project to provide rural Scotland with appropriate online access. Let's pick up on his serious point about encouraging online users. There will be situations where going online and utilising those options will have a positive impact on our climate footprint. However, as I have outlined in my statement and also in the other documents, we are trying to seek a balance here. We are also trying to encourage greater usage of rural high streets, for example. If you live in a rural area, I guess what we are saying among other things is try to put your journeys together so that you are not making two, three or four journeys a week into town. Try and reduce your car for a bit, but all means get out on that high street and support it, because that is important that we maintain our local high streets for the future. Julian Martin, who is running remotely, is followed by Colin Smith. Thank you, Presiding Officer. One of the issues in my Aberdeenshire constituency is that public transport, particularly bus public transport, can get people between the towns and the area for work without having to go through Aberdeens city can be very poor. Hence why so many of my constituents rely on a car to get to work on time. As the minister said in the statement, not all the actions needed to make alternative transport options efficient, affordable and available rests with the Scottish Government. What role does the minister think local authorities and other partners need to play here to help to improve public transport, to increase routes and services that might not on the surface seem profitable but are essential if we are to provide an alternative to brutal car use? Minister. Presiding Officer, I am conscious of choosing my words carefully here, because I do not want to give the impression that we are lumping responsibility on to local authorities. Far from it, this is about genuine partnership working. She is right to identify that collaborative work is a target. I commend COSLA for its input to the document. Local authorities and regional transport partners are going to be key to reducing car usage, not least through special planning and land use decisions. Local authorities have a key role and demand management schemes, like continuing to deliver low-emission zones, whether to create local workplace parking licensing schemes, how they might draw down investment from bus partnership funding and active travel, and other funding schemes that are there. We have recently awarded £12 million from our bus partnership fund to the north-east of Scotland bus alliance to help them with delivery of some of the proposals that they had. I would also point Ms Martin to a project in the neighbouring constituency in Elgin. A mass project mobility as a service that I have visited and was hugely impressed with the potential of these pilot projects to be rolled out across Scotland is enormous and could really play a part in what we all need to achieve here. Colin Smyth, to follow by Kenneth Gibson. We will not get people out of their cars unless we put in place those public transport alternatives. The minister said that regulations for the workplace parking tax were laid before Parliament yesterday, but more than two years since that secured amendments to the same transport bill to give councils the power to set up publicly owned bus services. There is no sign of the regulations to deliver that. When will the powers be given to councils and, crucially, how much additional funding will be given to councils to set up those bus companies so that we can reverse the massive decline that we have seen in bus usage under this Government? Minister. As Mr Smyth, I hope that we will acknowledge that the pandemic has played a part in doing only a number of things that we wanted to bring forward. I have said to him before, I will say it again, he and I are not on opposite sides of this. We share a desire to bring forward those proposals and really encourage councils, whoever else, to take advantage of them in order to deliver the kind of bus service that he and I both want to see. In terms of when the legislation will come forward it will come forward in the course of this year. In terms of how this will be funded, we have committed to establishing the community bus fund. There is £1 million in the budget for the forthcoming years as a starting point, and I very much look forward to working with Mr Smyth on this to bring it all of it to fruition. Kenneth Gibson to be followed by Beatrice Wishart. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Car drivers, of which I am one, use that mode of transport due to its ready convenience in all weathers 24 hours a day. Road and fuel taxes are reserved in increasing the cost of driving only damaged low-income households. What improvements will be made particularly in rural and island Scotland to persuade drivers to make the necessary modal shift, given that it has been estimated that a 50 per cent increase in public transport is required to cut car usage by 1 per cent? Minister. The private car use will be more challenging for people who live in rural and island areas, of course it will be. There is more that we can all do. Kenneth Gibson highlights one of the challenges here. People find it more convenient to jump in their car. We all do it. For all sorts of journeys, whether or not alternatives are readily available, that needs to change. Part of that is about ensuring people have good access to employment, goods and services locally and working in community hubs in 20-minute neighbourhoods. We also need to tackle some of the myths here. I disagree with Kenneth Gibson on something that he said. It is not people in lower incomes or in poorer areas who are going to be disadvantaged by making public transport more affordable and accessible. They already rely on that and they are much less likely to be using a car currently. There is an equality argument about reducing car usage also. Just to pick up on his point of view, we have the ferry from Brodwych coming into our draw-in. We have a rail station adjacent to that. We need to exploit opportunities like that more so that people have more ready access to rail when they come on to the mainland and when they are leaving the mainland to go to the island. There are lots of opportunities that we can develop and I look forward to working with Mr Gibson and other island representatives and the local authorities to see what more we can do in order to play their part. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. The minister's statement acknowledges that rural, remote and island communities are not expected to reduce car use at the same rates as urban counterparts. Car users in those areas, as others have suggested, would consider them essential, not luxury items. Can the minister outline how the proposed 10 per cent of the budget to be spent on active travel before 24-25 will be a portion across the diverse regions of Scotland? Presiding Officer, I would not presume to encroach on the charity of my colleague Patrick Harvie in any great detail on this, as I am sure she will. Very uncharitable comments from Mr Simpson. I think that she does make a very fair point. We have to ensure that all of those budget opportunities are there to be accessed by local authorities, regional transport partnerships wherever they may be located. I would encourage Beatrice Wishart to work with her own council. I would point to Ornay Islands Council, the neighbouring authority, for some of the good work they are doing. I encourage them to put together some thoughts, a package of measures that they think could ensure that her constituency plays its part and bring those forward so that they will be looked at. I call Jenny Minto, who is joining us remotely to be followed by Brian Whittle. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and I thank the minister for his statement. I am pleased that the route map takes into account the differing needs of vehicle travel and the availability of public transport in rural and island settings. Could the minister please provide further details as to how this element of the route map will develop? We very much recognise in the route map that more rural areas tend to rely more heavily on private car use and have less access to public and shared transport options. We know that the challenge for rural and island areas is greater. It is important to emphasise that this is a national ambition. It does not mean that car use in rural and remote areas is expected to drop at the same rate as towns and cities, but as a nation we do need to change our relationship with the car to drive down their emissions. The four themes are not just about switching transport mode. For those in remote areas, digital solutions offer a key opportunity in reducing car uses. That is why we have invested so heavily in broadband to extend broadband to more than 950,000 premises across Scotland, including our guile and beaut. Jumping on the back of Kenny Gibson's question and reply to Kenny Gibson, would the minister consider developing a train station at Cairnwyan and improve the rail link north into the central belt? That could reduce car travel considerably, because investment in the south-west infrastructure is long overdue. That was a shameless plug for one of his projects. I think that the point here is that this is not so much about infrastructure as part of this. That is the kind of thing that sits perhaps in other places in the Government's agenda. If an argument can be made for a project that fits with this agenda, then by all means local authority should come forward with costed proposals and outline how they think that this can actually make the difference that we need to make. In the spirit of co-operation I would not shoot any project of that nature down, but let's see what it will look like in detail. Mark Ruskell, who is joining us remotely to be followed by Siobhan Bryan. Thanks. Can I welcome this route map? It's a really big step to bringing about the green transport revolution. Can I also welcome that the minister has recognised the role of demand management measures such as workplace parking levies? Does he agree that we're appropriate, and I'll emphasise that we're appropriate, workplace parking levies or even congestion charging schemes can also raise substantial finance to invest in affordable, reliable attractive alternatives to the private car that will end up benefiting the most disadvantaged? We're going to have to deploy a range of measures to get here. In terms of workplace parking levies, these powers will be at the disposal of local authorities to make a judgment on whether it is the appropriate way to go. In the context, there are a range of measures linked into that that ensure that we will not be in a situation where excessive charges were levied, but Mark Ruskell is correct to make this point. I heard some groaning when he was making this point. This is going to require courage. We are going to have to confront the challenges that we face here and be bold. I would just remind some of the members in this chamber. Many were not here. Many members in here voted for the climate change targets that this Parliament adopted. When you vote for that, you have a responsibility to live up to the challenges that come with that. I would encourage members to remind themselves of that. It's easy to sit and vote through legislation. It is far harder to then support the difficult decisions that follow in order to deliver on those targets. I understand the Government's need to explore all the ways in which to achieve this target. Researching how to manage demand needs to consider how to dis-incentivise car use. While running a car has got cheaper, the cost of public transport has gone up. What needs to happen to reverse this situation? What is the UK Government doing here? How do we have similar climate change targets to meet? Tackling affordability and availability of public transport is key to making it sustainable, equitable for more people. We acknowledge that over the last decade rail and bus fares have risen above general inflation, while motoring costs have not in Scotland as in the rest of the UK. This is something that we need to address if we are to drive down car use. The UK Government has now applied a request for information on what it plans to do to reform vehicle fiscal duties, but it is pretty sketchy. They say that they will do something, but we really need detail on what their plans are, and, frankly, the clock is ticking. Mr Simpson is, as ever, chopping away from a sedentary position. This is a serious matter. His own Government in Westminster has recognised that the status quo is not an option. For a variety of reasons we need to have to change this whether we do it collectively or they give us the powers to shape a system that is best suited to Scottish needs. Either way, something has to change. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Glasgow is an area of Scotland with the lowest car ownership rates yet it was discovered this week that the M8 through Central Glasgow has noise pollution levels equivalent to that of standing on the airport runway at Glasgow Airport. Will he urgently instruct Transport Scotland officials to investigate the issue and bring forward proposals to address the clear emergency level of noise pollution in the centre of the city of Glasgow? Minister, I am not entirely sure what that had to do with the absolute focus of the statement, but if the minister wishes to deal briefly and try to relate that somehow to the target of car reduction by 2030, thank you. I am aware of the assertions that have been made. I am happy to look into the matter when my officials will write back to Mr Swinney. That concludes the statement and there will be a very short pause before we move on to the next item of business.