New Petitions

I thank committee members and members of the public for their patience. The next petition is PE1107, by Robin Falconer, on behalf of Highland Youth Voice, calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to reduce public transport fares for all under-18-year-olds who are in full-time education, and to make provision for young people with no income to travel free or to pay only half the adult fare. Members have received the papers on the petition. It is in the hands of the committee how we will explore the issues that are raised by it.

I am interested in a couple of issues. I suggest that we write to the Scottish Government, asking for its views on the petition and whether it can give us a costed estimate of the proposals in the petition. I am also concerned about the reported lack of uptake of the existing scheme and the underspend of its budget. I would like to ask the Government what its planned budget for the scheme is for 2008-09.

Okay. The petition asks for a commitment to tackle the issue of reduced transport fares for all under-18s in full-time education. Perhaps I am being too sensitive, but I wonder about people who have managed to get work after leaving school at the age of 16. They are probably not well paid and will be on relatively low incomes even for that age group. The principle that underpins the petition is noble, but my concern is about the anomalies that the action that it calls for could throw up. Do members have views on that?

You are too soft, John.

The costs would have to be considered carefully. I regularly hear announcements on the radio about the current concessionary fares scheme, encouraging young people to take up the offer. However, even with a substantial publicity budget and media coverage, the take-up of the scheme is not what those of us who felt that it was a good idea expected it to be.Another issue is whether bus services would have the capacity to cope with increased numbers of passengers. The folk who make the real contribution are those who work and pay taxes, which allows the non-charging of folk of pensioner age or anyone under 18. It would be ironic if those who pay the taxes that allow folk to get on buses for heehaw could not get on the bus to get to work because of lack of capacity. We would have to address that as a major public policy issue. The petition's proposal sounds noble, but it has drawbacks.We should explore what the petition proposes with the variety of agencies that members suggested and we should—to be fair—get the views of young people in Scotland on the petition. Perhaps we could explore the issue with Young Scot, which already has a commitment to obtaining reduced-cost access to a variety of different things, including public transport.

Okay. Given the money that young John Loughton, who chairs the Youth Parliament, got from winning "Big Brother", he will probably be running about in a pink limousine now.

The current concessionary scheme for young people is promoted by the Scottish Government, through Transport Scotland. However, take-up is not what had been hoped for, which raises issues other than the capacity issue. To be fair, the young petitioner has raised legitimate issues, so I hope that we can start to address at least some of them.Is the committee happy to accept members' recommendations on the petition?Members indicated agreement.