Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what equality impact assessment his Department has made of the end of emergency covid-19 funding in March 2022 on bus service users.

We are working with the sector and HMT on next steps and will fulfil our legal duties on equalities as part of this process, which we take seriously.

The DfT considers the distributional impacts of bus funding very carefully, and there is clear evidence that people on lower incomes are more likely to use the bus. However, as Plan B restrictions and working from home guidance are lifted, we would anticipate there will be a change to some of the financial sustainability considerations for operators and bus services.