Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the level of social exclusion is in rural areas; and what assessment his Department has made of the link between social exclusion and access to public transport in rural areas.

In December 2018 the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs published their annual digest of statistics on a range of social and economic subject areas. This survey also shows that levels of belonging are, in fact, 10% higher in rural areas.

However, we acknowledge that for some, a lack of public transport can prevent people from having the social connections that they want, particularly in rural areas. The Department for Transport is one of five government departments to have loneliness added to the ministerial portfolio, and sits on the cross-government group which takes responsibility for driving action on social exclusion.