Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 5
50th Report - Local bus services in England
Published 29 Oct 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Local bus services in England All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The Department could do much more to support local transport authorities with the skills they need and to help them apply relevant good practice. Local transport authorities’ capacity and capability to deliver bus service improvements is not good enough. In 2023, 46% of local authorities rated their capacity as poor. Recognising these constraints, the Department has provided funding for each local transport authority to hire at least one officer for buses. We think that this is clearly insufficient given the increasing responsibilities of local transport authorities for buses. The Department established the Bus Centre of Excellence in 2023, to support the capability needs of local transport authorities, but its work is not sufficiently targeted to the outcomes the Department wants to achieve and the help that is needed. There can be big differences in bus service performance between neighbouring local transport authorities. The Department could do much more to identify success factors and ensure good practice is spread to areas that have similar characteristics. recommendation a. The Department should explain how it will make sure its support is targeted to the skills local transport authorities most need. 5 b. The Department should identify and share, through the Bus Centre of Excellence, best practice that is tailored for areas with similar characteristics.
From: Public Accounts Committee, 50th Report - Local bus services in England (HC 892), 29 October 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fiftieth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 29 December 2025).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fiftieth report from Session 2024-26
Published 19 January 2026.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees" with each of the Committee's recommendations, while saying it does not think it would be appropriate to set quantitative targets for national outcomes.
- On the vision for buses, the department intends to publish a summary of its vision and intended outcomes "in the next few months", but does not think quantitative national targets would be appropriate because they "would prejudge local choices and trade-offs".
- On funding, the Local Authority Bus Grant began consolidating funding in 2025-26; the Bus Services Fund is not ring-fenced, but funding letters will set an expectation that it is spent on eligible bus schemes, otherwise it "could be clawed back or reduced in future".
- On performance, the department gives a target implementation date of December 2026 for its outcomes framework and says it has been testing a basket of indicators with authorities through a 'Bus Indicator Pilot'.
- On concessionary travel, the department "will write to the Committee" within six months on barriers facing elderly and disabled passengers, with details of its plans to address them.