Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Director of Economy, Transport and Environment providing an update on the concessionary fares scheme, following a request by the Select Committee to consider the impact of a change in policy from January 2017, regarding no longer automatically renewing older persons passes that have not been used for 6 months.

The Select Committee received a report on behalf of the Director of Economy Transport and Environment providing an update on the concessionary fares scheme (see Item 8 in the Minute Book). The Chairman noted that in Autumn 2016 this Select Committee pre-scrutinised proposals regarding the concessionary fares scheme that included a change to be implemented in January 2017. The change was to no longer automatically renew older person’s passes, if they had not been recorded as having been used in the previous six months. Members of the Select Committee requested that a report come back to the committee to consider the impact of this policy change.

Members heard that of around 10,000 passes issued for which usage information was available, 34% were not automatically renewed. Over 1,000 then asked for their passes to be renewed. Therefore on balance approximately 20% did not need renewing. There was no evidence of complaints about the revised approach. The cost of the additional calls to the call centre to request renewals had been factored in, and still generated a saving compared to automatically renewing all passes. It was noted that bus operators were asked to allow passengers a three month grace period to allow for passes to be renewed once they expired.

RESOLVED:

The Select Committee note the report.