FOI23/24 081 Sustainable Transport

Date published: 15/11/2023

Please see below a request for information under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and under the Environmental Information Regulations.

I am seeking this information on behalf of Transform Scotland, the national alliance for sustainable transport. We represent a diverse range of member organisations, from community groups, environmental NGOs, walking and cycling charities to transport companies, local authorities and universities.

Our information request is with regards to the delivery of sustainable transport within Scotland’s Public Bodies, and particularly in the context of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009. Firstly, we are interested in Public Bodies’ targets for business travel:

1. Do you have a target to cut emissions from air and/or business travel? If so, please share information about any target(s) you have (e.g. description of the target, when the target was adopted, timeline to meeting the target). Secondly, we are interested in Public Bodies’ corporate travel policies and plans:

2. Please provide copies of any corporate policy your organisation has on the reduction of emissions from business travel.

3. Please provide copies of any corporate policy your organisation has on the reduction of the use of air travel for business travel purposes. Finally, we are specifically interested in Public Bodies’ use of rail and air for domestic travel:

4. Please provide details of the number of flights your staff have taken from Edinburgh & Glasgow Airports to London Airports for business purposes in the past 12 months (or your most recent 12 month reporting period) for travel to destinations within south-east England.

5. Please provide details of the number of rail journeys your staff have taken from Edinburgh & Glasgow railway stations to London railway stations for business purposes in the past 12 months (or your most recent 12 month reporting period) for travel to destinations within south-east England.

Questions 1 to 3 are considered to be requests for information under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

1. Do you have a target to cut emissions from air and/or business travel? If so, please share information about any target(s) you have (e.g. description of the target, when the target was adopted, timeline to meeting the target).

We don’t have specific targets however the wording in our policies support greener methods of travel.

We have a Sustainability Report which provides information relating to your requests. The link is below.

Sustainability Report 2020 to 2021 (sqa.org.uk)

Secondly, we are interested in Public Bodies’ corporate travel policies and plans:

2. Please provide copies of any corporate policy your organisation has on the reduction of emissions from business travel.

3. Please provide copies of any corporate policy your organisation has on the reduction of the use of air travel for business travel purposes.

We don’t have policies relating to the reduction of emissions from business travel.

However, a link to of our Travel, Accommodation and Expenses Policy is below. This is currently being updated and will available on our website once the update is completed.

One of the updates to the policy is in the statement:

“SQA is committed to sustainable working practices as part of our ambition to become a net zero organisation . Staff should not travel unless necessary and where it is necessary they should seek to use the most sustainable means of travel while remaining safe and secure. There is a presumption against travel by car and air. Staff should consider other alternatives to travel for example video conferencing.”

SQA also has an Environmental Management Policy which provides information on our commitment to environmental issues, which may be helpful. The link to this is below.

SQA Environmental Management policy

Finally, we are specifically interested in Public Bodies’ use of rail and air for domestic travel:

Questions 4 and 5 are considered to be requests under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

4. Please provide details of the number of flights your staff have taken from Edinburgh & Glasgow Airports to London Airports for business purposes in the past 12 months (or your most recent 12-month reporting period) for travel to destinations within south-east England.

Within the period 01 September 2022 to 31 August 2023 there were 60 flights from Edinburgh and Glasgow airports to London airports and 52 flights from London airports to either Glasgow or Edinburgh airports. All flights were economy class apart from one return trip between Glasgow airport and London Heathrow. This was flown as premium economy as it was part of a trip to India.

5. Please provide details of the number of rail journeys your staff have taken from Edinburgh & Glasgow railway stations to London railway stations for business purposes in the past 12 months (or your most recent 12 month reporting period) for travel to destinations within south-east England.

Within the period 01 September 2022 to 31 August 2023 there were 16 rail journeys between Glasgow and Edinburgh stations and stations in London. For the same period there were 15 journeys between London stations and Glasgow and Edinburgh. All rail journeys were taken standard class.