Question reference: S4W-06033
- Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
- Date lodged: 6 March 2012
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Current status: Answered by Keith Brown on 20 March 2012
Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what requirement schools have to provide cycle training and what percentage of schoolchildren completes level (a) 1, (b) 2 and (b) 3 Bikeability Scotland training.
Answer
Scottish Schools have no obligation to provide cycle training. However, The Road Traffic Act 1988, Chapter 52, Section 39 states that:
“Each local authority must prepare and carry out a programme of measures designed to promote road safety including the dissemination of information and advice relating to the use of roads, the giving of practical training to road users, or any class or description of road users and other measures taken in the exercise of their powers for controlling, protecting or assisting the movement of traffic on roads, and in constructing new roads, must take such measures as appear to the authority to be appropriate to reduce the possibilities of such accidents when the roads come into use.”
Through Scottish Government funding to Cycling Scotland, 68.5% of children receive some form of cycle training. At Level 2, this training is delivered to 68.5% of the 55,000 pupil cohort in P6 and P7, with 31.5% of children receive on-road training.
Currently, Cycling Scotland has no robust data for the percentage delivery at Bikeability Scotland Levels 1 and 3. This is because the Cycling Action Plan for Scotland’s No1 Action is to focus on more on-road training which will provide the right skills for independent travel acquired in the right environment. Encouragingly, requests for Levels 1 and 3 resources would indicate that there is multi-level training delivery in all 32 local authority areas.