Bus Service Operators Grant

(asked on 3rd July 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sugg on 5 June (HL8111) and the report by the Campaign for Better Transport Buses in Crisis, published in June, that states that local bus budgets have halved in the last seven years, what assessment they have made of whether devolving part of Bus Services Operator Grant to local authorities has met their intended objectives.


Answered by
Baroness Sugg Portrait
Baroness Sugg
This question was answered on 17th July 2018

The Department for Transport pays around £43m of Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) per year directly to local authorities. This element of BSOG relates to services which local authorities procure directly because they would not otherwise be commercially viable.

This funding is ring-fenced and may only be used for the purposes of supporting bus services (including community transport services run under a section 19 permit), or for the provision of infrastructure supporting such services. Local authorities are required to report to the Department on how they have made use of the devolved funds, as well as publishing such information on their website.

As a devolved fund, it is for the local authorities to determine how they use this funding to support bus services and help meet their local objectives.

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