Ministers to look again at ADS business travel

Ministers have promised to look again at the legal argument they made for the removal of business travel from the Air Discount Scheme (ADS).

That’s according to Northern Isles MSPs Liam McArthur and Tavish Scott, who met with cabinet secretary for infrastructure and capital investment, Alex Neil and the minister for housing and transport, Keith Brown, telling them that the loss of the discount was damaging businesses and voluntary and public bodies in the islands.

Ministers also agreed to consider the evidence of this impact, which the MSPs plan to collect this summer.

Mr McArthur said: “Tavish and I plan to undertake surveys of businesses, and voluntary and public bodies in our respective constituencies over the summer, finding out just what the impact of the loss of the discount is. Feedback we have each already received suggests that the change is causing real problems. The ministers undertook to look carefully at the results of our surveys. We each plan to issue survey forms shortly. The more we get back, the stronger the case we can make.”