Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to reduce (a) bus, (b) coach and (c) other transport costs for schools.

The department’s home to school travel policy aims to make sure that no child is prevented from accessing education by a lack of transport. Local authorities must arrange free home to school travel, at the start and end of the school day. This is for children of compulsory school age, (5 to 16), who attend their nearest school and would not be able to walk there because of the distance, their special educational needs, disability or mobility problem, or because the nature of the route means it would be unsafe for them to do so.

At their discretion, some schools may choose to organise their own school travel, which they may or may not charge for. Local authorities may also choose to meet their statutory responsibilities for arranging school travel through local arrangements with schools in some cases. I am keen to understand how well home-to-school transport supports children to access educational opportunity and will be working with departmental officials on this.