Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what changes his Department has made to the collection of data on bus fares and punctuality since 2010.

The department operates two surveys to collect data on bus fares and bus punctuality. Bus fares information is collected from bus operators every quarter and bus punctuality is collected from local authorities every year, both via online surveys.

In 2012 and 2015 the sample of operators from whom the Department collected data on bus fares was revised.

For the 2012/13 bus punctuality data collection the following voluntary questions were added to the survey:

• Do you continue to collect/record data on bus patronage in your area?
• If yes, can you please enter the number of passenger journeys on local bus services?
• Please indicate if you are able to share figures for individual operators with DfT (solely for use in validation of figures we collect directly from operators)
• If possible, please provide a contact name/email for any queries on the patronage data and any relevant notes in the box below (for example, if figures are not yet available but will be later)
• The Department is also interested in learning more about the number of passengers carried on flexible or demand responsive modes of transport, including community transport. If you are able to supply any information on these for your area (such as number of passengers, nature of service) please enter brief details below