Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the impact on bus services caused by staff shortages; and what steps his Department is taking to address the impact of staff shortages in the bus services sector.

My Department is working closely with the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) and the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) to gather information to gain an understanding of the current staffing levels and recruitment pipeline in the bus sector.

The Government remains committed to maintaining high service levels for bus users to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 and has announced £226.5 million in Bus Recovery Funding to support this.

Individual bus operators are required to ensure they have sufficient staff in order to run their scheduled services. To this end, we expect the bus sector to pursue all opportunities to encourage job seekers into the industry.