Data

Concessionary Travel Cards


Description

Number of National Concessionary Travel Scheme cards issued to all adults with disabilities and to adults over the age of 60. The Young Persons' (Under 22s) Free Bus Travel was introduced on 31 January 2022 and these figures are now included. These estimates are published in [Scottish Transport Statistics](https://www.transport.gov.scot/our-approach/statistics/#42763](https://www.transport.gov.scot/our-approach/statistics/#42763) and are collected by a third party contractor which passes summary numbers to Transport Scotland.


Metadata

Theme Transport
OrganisationTransport Scotland
License UK Open Government Licence (OGL)
Published
Last updated
Next update1 Mar 2027
Update frequencyannual
Reference period2006 to 2025
Geographic coverageHealth Board Areas, Council Areas, Country
Contacttranstat@transport.gov.scot

Data quality

Completeness

Commentary on Transport Statistics can be found in the Scottish Transport Statistics publication.

Uniqueness

Not assessed

Consistency

Concessionary travel statistics for England can be found on the gov.uk website.

Timeliness

This dataset will be updated annually.

Validity

These statistics are used by a wide range of interested parties, such as:

* The Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government (including Transport Scotland)
* Local authorities
* Regional Transport Partnerships
* Police Scotland
* Other public sector bodies (e.g. Scottish Enterprise and HIE, Cycling Scotland)
* Transport companies and their representative organisations
* Students, academics and other researchers
* Transport consultancies
* Other bodies with an interest in transport matters, such as the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, the Scottish Transport Studies Group, SUSTRANS, the Institute of Road Safety Officers, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and other bodies concerned with road safety
* Politicians and members of the public.

They are used for a wide range of purposes including:

* Informing the general public's choices, e.g. lifestyle choices around road safety
* Government decision making through policy making and policy monitoring
* Resource allocation
* Informing public marketing campaigns e.g. road safety
* Supporting third sector activity e.g. lobbying and funding applications
* Facilitating academic research.

Accuracy

For more details on the accuracy of these statistics, see the publication Scottish Transport Statistics or contact Transport Scotland.

Quality management

For more details on the methodology used to produce these statistics, see the publication Scottish Transport Statistics or contact Transport Scotland.


Additional details

Revisions

The new supplier of the National Entitlement Card programme is able to provide a more detailed split of card holder eligibility than Transport Scotland received previously. As well as being able to better identify eligibility, the new reports also identify duplicate cards i.e. where a customer has a card due to expire at the end of the month and a replacement has been issued, so these can now be excluded from the totals. These changes mean that data for 2013 onwards is not directly comparable with earlier years. Figures for Young Scot disability cards were mistakenly excluded from the figures for 2013. The figures have now been corrected.

Confidentiality policy

This dataset does not contain any sensitive or personal information.