Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she will publish a monitoring and evaluation framework on disability equality training in order to establish a baseline level of training to meet requirements under Section 36 of the Bus Services Act 2025.

We are clear that high‑quality staff training is essential to providing bus services that are accessible for all passengers. That is why the Bus Services Act 2025 will mandate that both bus drivers and passenger-assisting staff undertake disability awareness and assistance training.

Section 36 of the Bus Services Act 2025 provides powers for the Secretary of State for Transport to require carriers and terminal managing bodies to record and publish training statistics in order to ensure that compliance can be monitored. Once commenced, we will expect all relevant operators and terminal managing bodies to comply with their reporting duties. We will engage with relevant stakeholders when developing such requirements, and will provide the industry with more information in due course.

The approach to evaluating the impact of the requirements under Section 36 will be considered as part of a wider monitoring and evaluation plan for the Bus Services Act 2025. In particular, and as stated in our Impact Assessment on the new measures on Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), we intend to undertake process evaluation, for example evaluating the mechanisms for developing, delivering and reporting on the new disability training requirements, as part of the process evaluation for the Act’s wider training requirements on VAWG and anti-social behaviour.