It was a much shorter version of the annual government workplan than previous years but it did still include priorities to enable cycling in Scotland. To be honest there wasn’t much new for active travel, which was disappointing after last year, but there were still positive policies for the Minister and his civil servants to get stuck into and deliver this year.

Read more in my analysis of the PfG from Cycling UK in Scotland.

Take a look back at the progress government made to deliver on last year’s PfG commitments in Cycling UK’s recent PfG status report.

Section 1: Current Consultations

(in date order for responses)

1.1: Scottish Government –  Land reform in a Net Zero Nation: consultation paper

Government is working on a Land Reform Bill to be brought forward during this Parliament. This is part of the consultation process.

You may have comments to make on the right use of land for tackling climate change and the nature crisis and ensuring a just transition but there’s also scope to comment here on improving access for cycling in Scotland.

Part 6 proposes that there should be a duty on large-scale landowners to publish Land Management Plans and part 8 proposes those who receive public funds should be required to produce them.

At Cycling UK we hear too many cases of landowners preventing access to their land for walking and cycling, despite people having right of responsible access under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003.

This new Land Reform Bill and consultation is a good opportunity to require large landowners, who are in receipt of public money, to be required to comply with the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.

In other words, if they don’t allow access to their land and don’t follow the code, the public money they receive can be stopped. At present there doesn’t seem to be enough penalty for land owners flouting this law.

Closes 25 September 2022

1.2: Scottish Sentencing Council – Death by Driving

The sentencing council is seeking views on their draft guideline on the statutory offences involving causing death by driving.

Cases of drivers killing other other people whilst behind the wheel and receiving a short sentence are all too familiar. Pleas for tougher sentencing for road crime seem to go nowhere. Now is the chance to tell the sentencing council what you think.

More on this consultation next time.

Closes 22 November 2022

Section 2: Forthcoming Consultations

Transport Scotland is developing a new Cycling Framework and Delivery Plan for Active Travel which is the follow up to the Cycling Action Plan. This will be very important for driving forward action on cycling so will be a highlight of a digest sometime in the autumn.

The Scottish Government is working on a new Climate Change Plan which should be published for consultation this autumn.

The Scottish Government is also working on an Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan which will cover transport such as electric and hydrogen vehicle and should also include e-bikes.

Section 3: Consultation Feedback

None this month

Commitments from the deal have been included in the Programme for Government, published this week. Here are some highlights from the PfG:

• Spend at least £320 million or 10% of the total transport budget goes on active travel by 2024-25
• New Cycling Framework for Active Travel – to be published in 2022
• Establishing an active freeway network for Scotland
• Ensure all appropriate roads in built-up areas have a safer speed limit of 20 mph by 2025
• An online reporting system – a 1‑year pilot project enabling anyone to upload camera footage of dangerous driving.
• Maintaining the Scotland Cycle Repair Scheme
• Produce a route map, by the end of 2021, for achieving the target to reduce the use of cars – measured as ‘car kilometres’ – by 20% by 2030
• Deliver on our vision for “20-minute neighbourhoods”
• Place Based Investment programme, backed with £325 million over the next five years.

There’s only a couple of smallish consultations from Transport Scotland this month. In the coming weeks and months, as the new parliamentary term really gets going, we expect there to be an increase in consultations , some of which will seek opinions on implementing the above policies.

Section 1: Current Consultations

(in date order for responses)

1.1: Transport Scotland – Consultation on Penalty Charge Notices for Parking Enforcement

Illegal and inconsiderate parking is at best an annoyance and at worst a safety risk for cyclists. The government is consulting on parking charges including differentiating between different offences. For example, it makes sense to charge someone more for parking on a double yellow than for overstaying their time in a parking space. As the consultation says ‘For enforcement to be effective, penalty charges for parking in breach of the prohibitions need to be set at an appropriate level.’

Closes 4 October 2021

1.2: Transport Scotland – Membership of the National Smart Ticketing Advisory Board Consultation

This may be a wee bit niche, however, if like me you agree that public bike share schemes should be part of smart ticketing in Scotland it’s worth a quick response – even if you answer only Question 1 which asks whether disability organisations and active travel organisations should be included on the Board.

Closes 12 October 2021

Section 2: Forthcoming Consultations

No specific consultations expected

Section 3: Consultation Feedback

3.1: Law Commission (& Scottish Law Commission) – Automated Vehicles: A regulatory framework for automated vehicles

This was featured in Consultation Digest (National) Issue 5 in March. Here is the response we received to the GoBike submission:

“Dear All,

The team has spent the last few months reviewing the materials submitted in response to our third consultation which closed in March this year. We are pleased to announce the publication of the summary of responses to our paper. In it we outline the key arguments put to us and direction of travel as we work towards the final report at the end of this year.

We have also put all the responses we received on our website.

Today we are also publishing a draft impact assessment and questions about the impact of our proposed reforms alongside the summary and welcome views.

Between now and the final report we have no further consultations planned but the team will be very happy to hear from you should you wish to bring any developments or ideas to our attention.

The summary of responses and next steps, all consultation responses received and our draft impact assessment are available on our project pages at https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/automated-vehicles/ or https://www.scotlawcom.gov.uk/law-reform/law-reform-projects/joint-projects/automated-vehicles/ 

Yours sincerely,

Automated Vehicles Team – Law Commissions

 Email: automatedvehicles@lawcommission.gov.uk