Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment the Government has made of merits of lowering the age of eligibility for the older person’s bus pass to 60 years old nationwide.

Restoring the previous age of eligibility for concessionary bus travel to sixty would re-create the anomaly of some non-disabled people of working-age, some of whom may be on significant wages, being entitled to a free bus pass, which was not the original intention of the national bus concessionary scheme. Re-establishing the link between concessionary bus pass eligibility and the state pension age addresses that issue and will also help the financial sustainability of the scheme.

Local authorities have the discretion to offer concessionary travel to those who are yet to reach the qualifying age, such as have been introduced in London and Liverpool.