We fear braking point as school taxis bill hits £100m

Warning after soaring cost of taking kids to classes

- BY DAN VEVERS

COUNCIL spending on taxis has tripled to £100million a year, a Sunday Mail investigation has found.

The majority of the staggering bill comes from taking pupils with additional support needs (ASN) to school.

Scotland has seen an explosion in the number of kids classed as ASN in recent years, with the total now standing at 299,000 - 43 per cent of the entire school roll.

It follows a warning from the Accounts Commission watchdog in May that councils face a huge £647million budget shortfall amid tax rises and squeezes on local services.

Lib Dem education spokesman Willie Rennie warned: "The SNP Government must wake up to the scale of this issue before the system breaks.

"This shows how supporting children with additional support needs is becoming an ever bigger part of what councils do."

Under freedom of information, we asked all 32 councils in Scotland for details of how much they spent on taxis in 2024-25, and how much of this was allocated for school runs, with this information provided by 27 local authorities.

We discovered a stunning total bill of £94.2million in the last financial year covering 2024-25. In comparison, Scottish councils spent an average of £30million on taxis between 2012 and 2015, meaning the figure has tripled over the last decade.

More than 80 per cent of last year's taxis spending went on school runs. Councils are legally obligated to ensure every pupil gets to school.

Kids with specialist needs are often matched up with schools not close to their home or can't get a bus. With nearly 300,000 children now considered to be ASN pupils, critics say the criteria has become too broad.