An assurance that every child who travels by school bus will soon have access to a seat belt has been branded misleading in Fife.
The Scottish Government heralded new legislation which comes into force this summer but Councillor Tim Brett said it would not apply in the kingdom.
Dedicated school transport vehicles will need to be fitted with seatbelts and Transport Minister Humza Yousaf outlined the benefits of the new law in a press release which said that from August “every child has access to a seat belt when travelling to and from school”.
Mr Brett, the Liberal Democrat group leader on Fife Council, said none of the buses which carry more than 10,000 of the region’s pupils were solely for school use and called for the legislation to go further to protect youngsters.
He said: “This doesn’t apply in Fife. It only applies to dedicated school transport and none of our school buses are dedicated.
“They are all service buses which do the school run in the morning and afternoon and for the rest of the day they run service journeys.
“This isn’t going to help us and it’s wrong for the Scottish Government to give the impression it will.
“Either the minister doesn’t understand or is not aware of the situation in Fife.”
A Transport Scotland spokesman said: “The safety of Scotland’s school pupils is a top priority for the Scottish Government which is why it supported the new Seat Belts on School Transport (Scotland) Act 2017.
“The legal requirement for seat belts does not apply to commercial registered bus services.
“That is beyond the scope of the powers which were devolved to the Scottish Parliament on this issue.”
He said recently published guidance states that the bus is the safest way to get to school and the Scottish Government recognises the benefit of local authorities tailoring provision to meet needs and that it may not make sense to duplicate public bus provision with a council-contracted vehicle.
