Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the relationship between the bus service operators grant and the cost of bus fares.

We have been reviewing the Bus Service Operators Grant scheme in recent years with a view to improving its effectiveness in supporting bus services. In their assessment of the impact of any changes in policy associated with the Bus Service Operators’ Grant, departmental economists normally assume operators pass subsidy received on to passengers 50% through lower fares and 50% through increased service levels. Under these assumptions, they estimate that BSOG has the impact of keeping fares 3% lower than they would be in its absence in England outside of London.