Concessionary Travel

The motion

That the Parliament welcomes the recommendation of the Review of the Scotland Wide Free Bus Travel Scheme for Older and Disabled People to include seriously injured armed forces veterans in the scheme but notes with disappointment and concern the review’s recommendation that appears to disenfranchise disabled people who receive the lower rate of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) from the scheme; further notes that the review paints a worst-case scenario of the costs of including disabled people who receive the lower rate of DLA, that the methods used to arrive at these projected costs is questionable and that the review also played down the positive social impact that the scheme has on people’s lives; considers that denying disabled people on the lower rate of DLA access to the scheme will damage the main aims and ethos of the scheme, namely to allow disabled people improved access to services, facilities and social networks by free scheduled bus services and so promote social inclusion and improve health by promoting a more active lifestyle for disabled people; notes that previous local schemes operated in Strathclyde and West Lothian provided people on the lower rate of DLA access to concessionary travel schemes and that they supported the national scheme, mirroring its eligibility criteria instead of the stringent criteria that are now adopted; supports disability organisations Leonard Cheshire Disability, Learning Disability Alliance Scotland (LDAS), Inclusion Scotland and many more in challenging the review’s negative recommendation; considers that disabled people’s views and those of the organisations that represent them should be taken into account, and believes that the recommendation on eligibility contained in the review is unfair and that that the national concessionary travel scheme should include those in receipt of the lower rate of DLA.


No recorded vote on this motion. Most motions are never debated, and many that are debated are agreed without a division. Vote records are published from 2011.

Lab 28 LD 8 Green 1

Party shown is each supporter’s party when the motion was published.

No contribution in the Official Report cites S3M-04780 by reference.