Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the powers available to local authorities to control congestion, in the light of reports that some bus companies are no longer buying new vehicles where there are inadequate bus priority measures.

Her Majesty’s Government has made no specific assessment in light of these reports. Section 16 of the Traffic Management Act 2004 introduced a network management duty for local traffic authorities to manage their road networks with a view to “achieving, so far as may be reasonably practicable, the expeditious movement of traffic on the authority’s road network”. Local authorities have a range of powers and tools available, including bus priority measures, to manage congestion and are responsible for deciding which measures are appropriate for use on their roads.