Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2016 to Question 49208, for what reasons statistics on supported bus service mileage by local authorities are not available for periods earlier than 2013-14.

Data on local authority supported mileage is available for the years 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16.

In line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, statistics should be produced to a level of quality that meets users’ needs. Data on local authority supported mileage, prior to 2013/14, have not been published by the Department because of concerns about the robustness of the data.

Data on supported mileage, at the national level, from 1987/88 to 2015/16 is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/560579/bus0205.ods