50th Report - Local bus services in England

Select Committee

Public Accounts Committee HC 892 29 October 2025

Report Status Response document linked Recorded deadline: 29 Dec 2025

Missing links do not establish that no response was published. A linked document does not verify responses to individual findings.

Conclusions & Recommendations 29 items (16 recs)

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Government response

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fiftieth report from Session 2024-26 · published 19 Jan 2026

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Recommendations & Conclusions

29 results

2 Conclusion

Update committee on progress towards consolidated, long-term bus sector funding, ensuring rural spending

Conclusion

The Department’s funding for buses has been short-term, fragmented and poorly targeted, hindering effective investment in the sector. Over the period 2019–20 to 2024–25, the Department provided funding to the bus sector via 13 different grant schemes. Most of these … Read more

HM Treasury

50th Report - Local bus services in England

Recommendations & Conclusions

Update committee on progress towards consolidated, long-term bus sector funding, ensuring rural spending

Finalise bus service performance measures and develop evaluation plan for interventions

Support local authorities to understand bus operating models, learning from franchising pilots

Explain targeted skills support and share best practices via Bus Centre of Excellence

Detail barriers for elderly and disabled bus users, promoting concessionary pass uptake

Explain how local authorities are implementing bus passenger improvements through technology

Report examines local bus services in England, excluding London

Rural bus service recovery remains challenging, requiring LTA-led improvements

UK bus services perform poorly, demonstrating inadequate connectivity and significant economic costs.

Department's vision for bus services remains vague regarding specific improvements and timelines.

Fragmented short-term bus grant schemes hinder effective investment by operators and authorities.

Bus funding reform proceeding slowly for 12 years, with further delays anticipated.

Competitive bus grant allocation leads to unequal funding, failing to consider rurality.

Unring-fenced bus grants face risk of diversion from intended services by local authorities.

Department's inadequate monitoring hinders identification and support for under-performing bus service areas.

Department's evaluation programme lacks outcomes focus, providing poorly defined and unhelpful data.

Bus franchising requires significant time and cost, considerably exceeding Departmental estimates.

Department remains complacent about significant financial risks of bus franchising for local authorities.

Local transport authorities lack capacity and capability for bus franchising models.

Enhanced partnerships demonstrate mixed success in improving bus services in rural areas.

Local transport authorities' capacity for delivering bus services remains under significant strain.

Target Bus Centre of Excellence support to specific outcomes and most-needed skills.

Department lacks insightful analysis explaining disparities in bus service performance across areas.

Reduced bus usage by older and disabled people is not assured as genuine choice.

Disabled people face persistent barriers to bus use due to inaccessible information and infrastructure.

Department acknowledges poorer bus experience for disabled people, with accessibility measures underway.

Roll-out of real-time bus information faces challenges despite open data compliance.

Technological improvements like bus prioritisation and integrated ticketing enhance the bus passenger experience.

Digital exclusion poses challenges for demand-responsive transport uptake and cost-effectiveness.