Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure equitable access to public electric vehicle charging infrastructure in (a) rural and (b) low-income urban areas.

Transport, including the rollout of public EV chargepoints, is largely devolved to the Scottish Government. However, my officials regularly engage with Transport Scotland on zero emission vehicle initiatives, including charging infrastructure development.

In England, the allocation of the Local EV Infrastructure Fund took account of both levels of rurality and the index of multiple deprivation when calculating funding amounts.