Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 14 February 2017 to Question 63176, what assessment he has made of the effect that quality partnership schemes have had on local bus (a) patronage, (b) mileage and (c) fares.

The impacts on patronage, mileage and fares that are directly attributable to a quality partnership scheme – rather than influenced by other factors – can be difficult to identify. The assessment of the performance of individual quality partnerships schemes is primarily a matter for the local authorities that have introduced them and it is for them, working in co-operation with their local bus operators, to determine whether the objectives of individual schemes are being met.

However, in autumn 2015, the Department held a number of workshops on options to reform the legal framework for bus services. Discussions at these events, and more widely, suggest that both local authorities and bus operators found that partnership schemes have usually achieved or exceeded their objectives.