Lord Rosser – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rosser on 2016-04-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many regional devolution settlements that are (1) agreed already, and (2) currently being negotiated, include the devolution of transport powers; and what impact those settlements will have on local bus services.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

(1) The Government has agreed devolution settlements with 10 English areas. Each of the settlements contained provisions for the devolution of transport powers and responsibilities, from bus franchising to the establishment and management of key route networks, based on the ambitions and needs of each individual area.

(2) The Government is in active discussions with many other areas, however, proposals are developed and led by local areas and the decision to release information regarding the content of these discussions is a matter for the local area to decide, not the Government. As individual negotiations conclude and devolution deals are agreed, local areas may decide to publish the final deal documents on the GOV.UK website.

The Bus Services Bill will enable the implementation of the commitments made in devolution settlements to provide authorities with a greater say over the bus services in their area. It will be up to authorities to determine whether and how they implement changes to the way in which local bus services are provided.