Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sugg on 2 May (HL7495), what assessment they have made of whether any additional money has been spent on supporting local bus services when the devolved amount of the Bus Service Operators Grant and the reductions in local authority spending are taken together.
Decisions on subsidised bus services are a matter for individual English local authorities, in the light of their other spending priorities. Government also provides almost £1 billion of funding for Concessionary Travel every year and remains committed to protecting the current scheme.
In March 2015, the Department for Transport allocated £7.6m to 37 pilot schemes run by local authorities in England to pilot Total Transport solutions in their areas to explore how existing funding and resources for services could be allocated and co-ordinated more efficiently.