The Committee’s Activities

Objective One

During the year, the Convener produced briefings to support Ministerial request to ensure our areas of focus aligned with the First Minister’s (FM) Policy Prospectus, Equality, Opportunity, Community – New Leadership, A Fresh Start and with the PfG Commitments announced in September 2023.

This publication was reviewed alongside the September 2023 PfG announcements to refresh MACS Work Plan for 2024-2025, developed at the November 2023 Scoping Day and agreed at the January 2024 Board Meeting.

To inform Committee activities and gain greater knowledge, the committee continued to observe, give evidence, and provide our views to specific Scottish Parliament (SP) Committee sessions such as discussion and evidence on the National Islands Plan; Transfer of Operations to ScotRail; and input to “A Modern and Sustainable Ferry Service for Scotland.”

The Transport to Health and Social Care Subgroup continued to meet with the Scottish Government Primary Care Directorate to discuss how MACS recommendations from the phase one work could be embedded in the NHS Recovery plan commitments from PfG. This work progressed to support the development of the Transport to Healthcare Delivery Plan. The Subgroup also met with the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) to discuss and remain engaged with their work in relation to the review of the scheduled care service.

The MACS Transport to Health and Social Care and Motability Subgroups met with the Highlands and Islands Regional Transport Partnership (HITrans) and Tayside and Central Scotland Regional Transport Partnership (TACtrans).

HITrans – MACS received an update on the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) project that HITrans are running, which includes Motability customers. Discussions and feedback were provided and covered how the project works, the scope, what are the intended outcomes and benefits, any risks and how is this being monitored.

TACtrans – MACS received an update on the MaaS project looking to improve transport planning and access to hospital/medical appointments. This was initially running to cover travelling to Ninewells Hospital. MACS discussion was focussed on the parameters of this project, i.e. how it works, benefits currently realised, and their thoughts from the project outcomes and benefits so far, including, if there was potential for the project to be rolled out to other sites.

MACS emphasised the importance of gathering monitoring and evaluation data, i.e. was there a reduction in missed appointments/did not attends, were waiting lists reducing? MACS also discussed how the app works and how easy it is to use/ plan a journey, which transport providers are signposted within the app and how it accommodates booking using concessionary travel entitlements.

SEStrans – MACS Convener sits as a Non-Council Member on the Board of SEStrans RTP. This supports MACS influence in the region and ensuring the work and strategies have a strong focus on reducing inequalities and enhancing inclusion and accessibility. It also helps with MACS understanding of how RTPs work and link to the work of TS around the NTS and Local Authorities remits.

During this year MACS continued engaging with Sustrans Scotland (SS), meeting with the new Director and Deputy Director. These meetings presented opportunities to agree key areas of collaboration and engagement given the funding that is distributed from the Scottish Government via Transport Scotland to SS though PfG commitments on active travel.

Throughout the year, MACS continued to advocate the need for disabled people’s voices and lived experience in SS projects from early design stage and in Equality Impact Assessments (EqIAs) that need to be undertaken early in the project planning/design stage to ensure disabled people’s needs are planned and designed in from concept stage and not an afterthought.

MACS Convener met with Dr Ruth Wilson and Simone Piras (James Hutton Institute – Scotland) to discuss the findings from research around rural and islands transport and connectivity.

Following the 2023-2024 Programme for Government announcements, and linking to the First Minister’s Policy Prospectus, a commitment was given to introduce a Rural Development Plan. MACS attended subsequent meetings to discuss participation in this work. It was pleasing to see that MACS had been included in the scoping rounds with a commitment to engage as the Plan develops. This work will carry forward into 2024-25.

In November 2023, the Convener attended the Scottish Parliaments first summit to mark the “International Day of Disabled People”.

Objective Two

MACS remit to give advice to Scottish Ministers is actualised through engagement with officials to inform policy and delivery.

The November 2023 “scoping day” provided an opportunity for the full committee to revisit the FM’s Policy Prospectus and PfG commitment to ensure our work remained current and supported wider ministerial objectives (part of MACS remit).

As part of the MACS planning cycle the committee gathered in November to review our work to date and to scope and assess emerging ministerial commitments and policies from Programme for Government and this year including our response to the First Minister’s Policy Prospectus. This session allowed us to discuss and sense check that our work plans and areas of engagement remain current and to agree where best to focus our finite resources for the following year, including identifying stakeholders to engage with to progress our work.

The Sponsor Team and Convener prepared briefing papers in advance to stimulate discussion and assist members with identifying key areas for engagement from various emerging policies and strategies. A summary and revised work plan was presented to MACS January 2024 Board meeting for discussion and agreement before being approved by the Cabinet Secretary for Transport in February.

Ministerial Engagements

Earlier in 2023, MACS Transport to Health and Social Care Subgroup had a positive meeting with the then Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Humza Yousaf, MSP. The meeting focused on challenges around the delays in the SG Health Directorate, Primary Care Team, producing the delivery plan that was agreed would be used to progress MACS recommendations from our Phase One Work on Transport to Health and Social Care. Following this meeting, progress was seen through 2023/24 and joint working has been productive with the Health Directorate.

In June 2023 MACS met with the Minister for Transport (MfT), Fiona Hyslop MSP, within her first week in her new portfolio. This meeting helped the MfT to understand areas MACS were working on and allowed MACS to raise some areas of concern, such as the lack of data and performance measures to evidence progress on the Reducing Inequalities pillar of the National Transport Strategy and the progress of the Accessible Travel Framework (ATF).

In January 2024 MACS met again with Ms Hyslop, now as Cabinet Secretary for Transport, on the Accessible Travel Framework, and her priorities, to inform and discuss the development of the MACS work plan for 2024-25.

Ministerial Correspondence

Fiona Hyslop MSP, Minister/Cabinet Secretary for Transport

Regarding Mobility Centres in Scotland, MACS received correspondence from the Minister for Transport, confirming that because of the issues MACS had raised, officials had engaged with the Health Board Directors of Planning regarding the Driving Assessment Service and whether the current services are sufficient for the needs of patients.

This issue was raised with Jenni Minto, MSP, Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health who has responsibility for the Service. The Minister for Transport requested that the Chief Operating Officer ensure that the review is conducted at pace and asked that officials update MACS on this review as it progresses.

This was also supported with the suggestion that this issue was included alongside the work in the Transport to Healthcare Delivery plan, to enable officials in Primary Care Directorate and Transport Scotland to provide further information to MACS as part of that programme of work at the regular meetings.

Further correspondence with the Minister for Transport related to the statutory review of the National Performance Framework (NPF) and the Pavements Parking prohibitions.

Shirley-Anne Somerville, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice

MACS wrote to the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice in relation to mobility centres and to ask what the Scottish Government can do to influence Motability to curb the profiteering from disabled people’s support payments.

Motability continue to make annual profits more than £1 billion and our position is that these excessive profits should be returned to customers who are being over charged for their Treasury subsidised lease. This ask aligns with the SG’s commitment in the Child Poverty Delivery Plan (Fresh Start, Bright Future) and PfG announcements to use every lever at its disposal to reduce poverty and inequality.

Family groups with a disabled member as part of the household are one of the six priority groups in the Scottish Government’s Child Poverty Delivery Plan.

Other Notable Engagements

Naghat Ahmed attended the Cross-Party Group on Sustainable Transport in March 2024. This meeting discussed the future of micro mobility in Scotland and featured presentations from Jenny Box, the Deputy Director (e-cycles) of Cycling UK, Peter Eland, Technical and Policy Director of the Bicycle Association and Farr Out Deliveries. Focus was on e-bikes.

Anne Macleod attended the Cross-Party Group on Islands that focussed on the National Islands Plan review and the Islands Connectivity Plan.

Objective Three

During various engagements MACS continued to message on objective three taking opportunities to remind stakeholders of this legislative requirement at the Accessible Travel Framework (ATF) Steering Group meetings, with TS and SG officials during meetings and in consultation responses.

MACS responded to the DfT Consultation on “The Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations (PSVAR) 2000 Call for Evidence” – where areas of focus included:

• Coaches – including the adequacy of regulations both for passengers using wheelchair lifts and ambulant passengers.
• Small vehicles – under 22 seats being exempt from all PSVAR. MACS advocated that it is time to bring them into PSVAR (Note: for both coaches and small vehicles, this issue is likely to be more relevant to rural Scotland).
• “Ordinary” buses – MACS asked for clarification on the position regarding mobility scooters on buses as part of an individual’s mobility equipment. MACS also raised the issues that at least two wheelchair spaces should be provided, while also noting that this may have adverse impacts on availability of priority seating etcetera, but a debate is needed.
• MACS also asked that DfT take stock of (and end) all the continuing exemptions that have been permitted i.e. for rail replacement vehicles.

MACS Ferries and Aviation Workstream continued to attend several sessions at the invite of Transport Scotland’s Ferry Team to assist with the development of the

Ferries Plan and the Islands Connectivity Plan. MACS advice in these engagements has always been taken “on board” and reflected in plans and strategies. Sessions this year included:

• Accessibility (physical, mental, digital)
• Community voice and transparency
• Infrastructure
• Capacity and Demand
• Accessibility (timetables, unplanned, essential travel)
• Integration

MACS also remained engaged with the Roads for All forum. Updates and discussions this year focused on pavement parking ban and enforcement; continuous footways, and floating bus stops. This activity will carry forward in the work plan for 2024-25.

The Roads for All Forum also facilitated further engagement with the Scottish Roadwork Commissioner (SRWC), who attended the forum this year for the first time. MACS view this as a positive development as it will provide opportunities for the disabled community to discuss the problem of roadworks – and what the SRWC can do about it directly.

Another achievement this year saw MACS joining the TS Aviation Accessibility Group. The first meeting was held this year, which allowed MACS to provide detail on the work on accessibility for air travel:

• MACS work with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to provide advice on “special assistance”, travelling with assistance dogs and developing a compensation system for lost or damaged mobility equipment.
• MACS engagements to advocate what is needed from a pre-notification service to support People with Reduced Mobility (PRM), across all airlines, including aligning with the Airline Accessibility Framework to improve customer experience. This needs to be end to end, including website designs and ease of use.
• MACS advocate that focus is placed on connecting airports to other sustainable transport modes, example – discussions with TS rail colleagues and the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) in relation to the fact that Prestwick also own Prestwick Rail Station and assistance and support services should include transferring from rail to the airport. Likewise for other airports such as Edinburgh and onto the bus or tram.
• Sharing good practice examples across airports (such as the lanyard schemes, support dogs and quiet routes through airports) and sharing good practice in passenger assistance between airports, ferries, and rail assistance services.
• Suggesting a four nations approach to glean best practice or innovation from across the UK

MACS will continue to engage with this forum to push for improvement for disabled people travelling by air.

Objective Four

During this year, the Sponsorship role for MACS was realigned and is now provided by TS Transport Strategy and Analysis (TS&A) Directorate. This transition allows MACS to tap into the wider resources of the TS&A Directorate, including in MACS activities to develop enhanced monitoring and evaluation methods and tools to measure the progress of the National Transport Strategy (NTS2), the Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) and the Accessible Travel Framework (ATF).

The new Sponsor Team also assisted by actively seeking opportunities for MACS to be consulted early by TS policy teams, proactively approaching TS and SG officials to open doors for MACS in policy development or revision and when defining contract for procurement to promote accessibility from the off. This was a welcome development, which led to more targeted engagements earlier in the planning process, which in turn increased opportunities to influence policy design and development.

In conjunction with the Convener, MACS Sponsor initiated spotlight sessions at Board meetings inviting TS colleagues as guests to pitch their policy development and benefit from the opportunity of early scrutiny and for guests to get advice from the full committee. These spotlight sessions were a remarkable success and will continue into 2024-25.

MACS Planning and Strategy Workstream engaged with John Lauder (Deputy CEO of Sustrans and seconded to Scotland’s Railways as Strategic Lead, Sustainable Travel to Stations Project, ScotRail) to inform the Practitioners Guide to the Sustainable Travel to Stations Strategy. This strategy (published June 2023) focused on helping make it easy, convenient, and safe for most passengers to get to and from stations without a car. Our engagement was to ensure the needs of disabled people were central in this developing strategy, including concentrating on the pedestrian infrastructure, transport links and promoting inclusive active travel opportunities.

During this year, MACS Convener and Roads, Infrastructure and Active Travel Workstream Lead engaged with TS Accessible Travel Team (and other key stakeholders) who had been working towards producing the consultation document on Inclusive Design Guidance for Busy Streets. This non-statutory national guidance is being developed to support the premise that considering the needs of disabled people in all aspects of design will deliver environments that meet the needs of everyone.

Although the guidance focuses on the needs of disabled people, previous research identified that street design should consider the needs of everyone and should consider all protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.

This guidance document needed to be agreed in principle prior to public consultation. MACS Workstream Lead not only offered input into the guidance but also ensured that the full working group had a say to promote collaboration.

Some of the key points raised by MACS included asking what this guidance document delivered that the Inclusive Mobility Guidance did not, and how it would contribute to real world improvements. Our overall conclusion reflected a degree of disappointment, that after three years in production, the draft for consultation didn’t say anything new or in our opinion add value with the potential to cause confusion by repeating sections of other guides (i.e. Departments for Transport’s (DfT) Inclusive Mobility Guide) in a way that did not add clarity. MACS made the following asks to move the project forward:

• That the framing of the document and language used reflects the Social Model of Disability.
• The introduction to the guidance should clearly identify the benefits Inclusive Design Guidance for Busy Streets will deliver that the Inclusive Mobility Guidance doesn’t.
• The introduction of the guidance needs to clearly articulate what the document is i.e. an inclusive design guide or an overview of the high-level principles for inclusive design.
• Areas of the guidance need more clarity and clearer measures, such as low flow and low speeds, carefully designed crossings etcetera or to be removed.

MACS were pleased to note that TS Accessible Travel Team accepted the advice and guidance by amending some sections of the document prior returning it to the working group for further discussions and agreement prior to sign off.

During this year MACS were represented at the Edinburgh Accessibility Commission (EAC) meetings. These meetings planned quarterly for 2023 and 2024. The EAC was formed to provide a forum to give independent advice to Edinburgh City Council on the challenges, opportunities and actions required to ensure the public streets and spaces are fully accessible to disabled people. As this was the first citywide accessibility commission MACS took the decision to join as intentions may be to have similar city-wide Commissions.

Of Note: MACS Board member Zara Todd is the independent Chair of EAC, and a MACS member also continues to sit on the Commission.

This year MACS Convener contributed to the work and the strategy development of the Scottish Rural and Islands Transport Community (SRITC) by sitting on the strategic advisory board and regular attendance at meetings and virtual café discussion.

This allowed MACS a dual role including: to hear about the current and emerging transport challenges faced by rural and islands communities, whilst providing the opportunity to steer their strategic plans, ensuring disabled people’s needs remain central.

Objective Five

National Transport Strategy

Engagement opportunities on the National Transport Strategy (NTS2) have been sparse since the change in set up of the Delivery Board in 2021/2022. MACS raised the need to re-establish a forum like the previous Transport Equalities Network. We are delighted and encouraged to see the establishment of a Transport Equality Group to provide advice to Transport Scotland officials and Ministers on equality and diversity-related issues relating to transport, and our engagement in this group will carry forward in work in 2024-25.

In December 2023, the Third Annual Delivery Plan for the NTS was published. As a committee MACS focused scrutiny and challenge remits to ensure disabled people’s needs were not only acknowledged but opportunities were sought to speed up progress in key areas to ensure that policy outputs (including in sustainable and active travel and the journey to net zero) did not negatively impact on disabled people. MACS sought opportunities to boost improvements and pick up the pace of the much-needed change and the areas agreed were included in the 2024-25 work plan.

Accessible Travel Framework (ATF)

During the year MACS played an active part in the Accessible Travel Framework Steering Group. Following updates at the spring meeting, MACS sought further engagement with Transport Scotland’s Accessible Travel Team during the Summer, including a Board spotlight session in July 2023.

This afforded time for TS’s Accessible Travel Team to consider the DES Evaluation Research Report (work commissioned by TS to Disability Equality Scotland) to assess the progress of the ATF.

MACS noted and raised the risk that the ATF lacked clarity and direction and recommended the Framework should avoid duplication of the work of others, and should seek to add value to projects that were progressing under the scope of other TS policy teams (modal) or through stakeholders’ actions such as being driven by Regional Transport Partnerships, by transport providers or by Local Authorities.

In December 2023 MACS provided additional advice to TS’s Accessible Travel Team on the accountability and governance arrangements for the remainder of the framework’s lifespan. Our advice was heavily based on the findings of the DES evaluation report as this was drawn from evidence available (limited data – quantitative) and the views and experiences of disabled people (qualitative). MACS worked collaboratively with TS Accessible Travel Team with a specific focus on the findings, conclusions and recommendations from the evaluation report seeking consensus on how they could respond to address the issues raised and areas of concern, and this took place in Feb 2024.

These activities and the advice given to TS link directly to MACS scrutiny role and our role as a critical friend, as well as linking to the work plan and Objective Five.

MACS discussed the development of the ATF during meetings with the Minister for Transport in June 2023 and January 2024, highlighting the need for the scale and pace of the ATF to be picked up with clearer monitoring and evaluation of progress to build confidence within the disabled community (and with key stakeholders) that the intentions of the ATF would be delivered as it enters the last 2 years of the framework’s lifespan.

It is of critical importance that our public transport system is fit for purpose and meets everyone’s needs if we are to ensure no one is left behind on our journey to net zero. If we are to reduce the reliance on cars, we need to ensure our public transport system is Available, Accessible and Affordable for all. The Minister welcomed our insights and advice, agreeing to investigate this and respond.

In summary, MACS felt that the DES report needed to raise more directly the question of whether the ATF was any longer a suitable vehicle for guiding TS’s work on making transport more accessible. MACS noted that a lot of the evidence (i.e. about taxis, clear pathways, etc) suggests that little or no progress was being made, even in the areas directly within the current ATF delivery plan. It was agreed (by all) that the report should raise this question directly and seek to remedy this position.

While it is a matter for TS, rather than DES or MACS, to decide if and how to continue the ATF. MACS recommendation remains that the Framework should take a more strategic, mainstreamed approach.

Considerable progress has been made and MACS welcome the efforts of the TS Accessible Travel Team and their open dialogue with Committee in our role as critical friend. This engagement will carry forward into the 2024-25 work plan.

A Just Transition in Transport

During this year MACS also attended meetings focusing on transport and mobility with the Just Transition Commission (JTC). MACS input contributed to their reports and recommendations to Scottish Ministers and should cement our productive future relationship with the JTC.

In June 2023, Scottish Government published their report: Just Transition, Transport, A Discussion Paper. Following publication, Committee had discussion with our Sponsor Team and TS Transport Strategy and Analysis Directorate to agree where MACS could best feed into developing areas, including through the next stages and discussions this report prompts.