This week’s Education Committee approved a move to no longer charge for pupils to access this service, and the recommendation has now been sent on to the council’s Executive Committee, which will meet on 2 March.

Paid privilege transport was introduced in 2010 and allows, where dedicated school transport vehicles have spare capacity, pupils who are not entitled to mainstream transport to access a seat on the school bus for a charge of £1 per day.

If endorsed by the Executive Committee, parents who pay for the service will no longer be charged for the rest of this year and do not need to make any changes to their current arrangements. The council will be in contact to notify those affected.

The priorities for allocating places were amended in 2018 to recognise children entitled to free school meals (FSM), and who lived within certain distance parameters from their school, and were amended once more in 2019 to make privilege transport places free of charge to FSM pupils.

New legislation means that the council is not able to charge for any spare seats under the paid privilege scheme on a bus or coach that does not incorporate features to enable disabled people to travel on them comfortably and safely, including a wheelchair space and a ramp or lift.

Lynn Sherry, Head of Education at South Lanarkshire Council, said: “Due to the fact that not all school transport contract providers will be able to comply at this point with these new regulations, as a council we would only be able to charge for privilege places on contracts that use vehicles that do comply, and this this would lead to some families being charged for privilege transport and others accessing it for free, depending on which vehicle was transporting their child to and from school.

There has recently been an extension of the enforcement of the disabled adaptations on services buses and coaches until July 2022, but it is fair that these charges should be stopped now, rather than waiting until the legislation comes into effect in July.

“This change would be consistent with the principles of free travel for children and young people within the new national free travel scheme for under 22s and the removal of the charge may also assist families who are continuing to face financial challenges due to the impact of the pandemic.”