Over the period 2019–20 to 2024–25, the Department provided £5.9 billion of funding to the bus sector via 13 different grant schemes. Most of these were short term, which hindered effective investment in the sector by bus operators and local transport authorities.21 We asked the Department why it had administered bus grants in such a fragmented manner. The Department acknowledged the issue, explaining that part of the complexity was due to emergency COVID funding and cost-of-living schemes and told us it has already taken some steps to simplify bus funding, for example by combining two grants to local transport authorities.22 The Department also told us that it intends to set out longer-term funding settlements for each local transport authority later this year.23