Introduction

This Work Programme 2024-28 is agreed between the National Smart Ticketing Advisory Board (NSTAB) and the Scottish Ministers.  This Work Programme reflects NSTAB’s Strategic Functions, sets out the Work Programme activities and the advice NSTAB intends to issue to the Scottish Ministers, and demonstrates how NSTAB supports the delivery of wider Scottish Government priorities.

The Aim of NSTAB

To provide advice to the Scottish Ministers on how to make it easier for people to reach their end destination by simplifying how they access and pay for travel. Such simplification should make public transport, regardless of provider, more convenient, accessible, flexible and attractive to the user, and further act as a positive incentive to encourage people to switch from private car use, in support of more sustainable travel modes.

Background

There are many ways to pay for journeys in Scotland. Smart ticketing is the term given for any kind of digital ticket, which can be loaded on to a smartcard, or kept on your mobile device as a Barcode/QR code M-ticket or within a digital wallet, or as a token on other Media. For certain smart tickets such as rail and ferry, these may also be printed at home or other locations. 

There is a national standard for interoperable smartcard products for public transport within the UK, known as ITSO enabling products to be used on multiple operators and modes, but there is no such equivalent standard for M-tickets. In recent years, contactless EMV (cEMV), where you use your bankcard (physical or virtual – within a smartphone/device) to either buy a ticket onboard a bus or to Tap-On and Tap-Off (ToTo) a bus, is also becoming popular across Scotland.

As technological opportunities develop, it is expected that Account Based Ticketing (ABT) solutions, where the customer may be offered Pay As You Go travel or the use of more than one smart ‘token’ for travel, and where the System can link these back to the customer to make sure they are charged appropriately, will become more widely used. For the purposes of NSTAB, all forms of payment and product fulfilment for smart ticketing including cEMV and cash is to be considered to improve multi-modal based options for the travelling customer.

What is NSTAB?

NSTAB was established under the National Smart Ticketing Advisory Board (Scotland) Regulations 2023 (the “2023 Regulations”) in fulfilment of a legal requirement placed on the Scottish Ministers by section 27C of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001 (the "2001 Act”) to establish an advisory committee to be known as the National Smart Ticketing Advisory Board. Section 27C was inserted into the 2001 Act by section 43 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 (the “2019 Act”).

NSTAB has statutory functions set out in section 27C of the 2001 Act which include:

  1. To issue advice and recommendations to the Scottish Ministers in relation to the strategic development of smart ticketing in Scotland.
  2. To advise the Scottish Ministers in relation to their functions insofar as they relate to the national technological standard for smart ticketing.
  3. To advise the Scottish Ministers in relation to their functions insofar as they relate to smart ticketing arrangements.

NSTAB is required to produce a Work Programme, and this must be approved by the Scottish Ministers. In addition, NSTAB must prepare and submit an Annual Report to the Scottish Ministers measuring its success and collating all advice given and recommendations made to the Scottish Ministers in the past year. This Report is the first of NSTAB’s 3 year Work Programmes.

NSTAB Members/Governance

Members of NSTAB, including the Chairperson, are non-executives appointed by the Scottish Ministers. Members of NSTAB are accountable to the Scottish Ministers and also to the Scottish Parliament and may be required to give evidence to Parliamentary Committees. NSTAB ensures that a Code of Conduct (aligned to the Model Code of Conduct for Board Members) is in place, that corporate actions are taken to implement it as required and that members understand their responsibilities, using the guidance provided by the Standards Commission. Current Members of NSTAB include:

Chairperson

1 chairperson
  • Voting: Only if tied
  • 1 Chairperson: Andrew Seedhouse

Balanced Voting Membership

5-7 operator representatives of different modes
  • Voting: Yes
  • Bus operator representative - Alex Hornby
  • Ferry operator representative - Diane Burke
  • Rail operator representative - Claire Dickie     
  • Tram operator representative - Marilena Papadopoulou 
  • Subway operator representative - Michael Nimmo
2-4 representatives of local and regional transport authorities/partnerships
  • Voting: Yes
  • Local Transport Authority representative - Margaret Roy
  • Regional Transport Partnership representative - Ranald Robertson
1-3 passenger and accessibility representatives
  • Voting: Yes
  • Passenger representative - Kirsten Urquhart
  • Accessibility representative - Hussein Patwa
1 representative of Scottish Ministers
  • Voting: Yes
  • Transport Scotland representative - Mary Docherty

Board Advisors

Up to 3 advisory roles relating to smart ticketing
  • Voting: No
  • Technical Systems Advisor - Mostafa Gulam
  • Smart Delivery Advisor - Matt Smallwood
  • Transport Strategy Advisor - James Gleave

NSTAB Secretariat

The NSTAB Secretariat are civil servants and are required to comply with the Civil Service Code and Scottish Government HR policies. Their primary responsibility for all operational matters is to the Board, and to ensure that NSTAB’s aims and objectives are met, and its functions delivered. They will support the Board in meeting its targets through effective and properly controlled executive action, whilst managing the budget for NSTAB in line with Finance guidance, policies and procedures, including the Scottish Public Finance Manual.