Mark Hendrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which scheduled bus journeys have had subsidies (a) withdrawn and (b) introduced in each (i) county and (ii) unitary council in the North West of England since June 2010.

Andrew Jones

My Department does not hold this data, as decisions about the provision of bus services that require subsidy are a matter for individual English local authorities, in the light of their other spending priorities. Latest figures (2013-14) show that almost £74 million was spent by local authorities in the North West of England doing so.

The majority of public funding for local bus services is via block grant provided to local authorities in England from the Department for Communities and Local Government. However, my Department also provides around £40m of Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) funding directly to English local authorities to help deliver bus services.

Moreover, in the recent Spending Review, the Chancellor confirmed that the total spending on BSOG of around £250 million a year will be protected for the Parliament, effectively preserving over 80 million bus passenger journeys – totalling over 50 million miles – in England every year.