Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the rate of bus accidents in London leading to personal injury or death, compared with that in other UK cities; and what lessons have they drawn about the impact of the bus franchise model used by Transport for London and its potential application elsewhere.

The department publishes statistics on road casualties based on collisions reported by the police using the STATS19 system. STATS19 groups together buses and coaches as a single vehicle type. Bus operations in London are the responsibility of the Mayor of London and Transport for London (TfL). TfL publish information about bus incidents on its network, alongside reports on specific bus related safety issues.

Data on the number of bus occupant casualties in London boroughs and other local authorities is published annually as part of the department’s casualty statistics, though direct comparisons are not made between different areas.

Casualty rates are not published at this level due to the unavailability of local authority level traffic data for modes other than cars.

The government will introduce a Buses Bill later this Parliamentary session. This will put the power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders right across England to choose the model that works best in their area, whether that be franchising, strengthened Enhanced Partnership with private operators or local authority ownership. We believe local leaders are best placed to make decisions about bus services in their area.