Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 16
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 ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Department’s evaluation programme is focused on specific funding streams, rather than on the outcomes it wants to achieve. Its most recent attempt to collect data to understand the impact of its funding interventions was poorly defined and did not provide useful information.34 We asked the Department whether its grants had resulted in improvements to bus services.35 The Department told us it intends to use an outcomes framework to specify metrics for each local authority, which it will pilot later this year. It told us this includes a basket of indicators including passenger satisfaction, punctuality, reliability, safety and accessibility.36 It hopes this will provide a better understanding of bus service performance and provide a guide as to whether to intervene, but it does not yet know how or when it would step in.37 28 Qq 5-6, 28-29 29 Q 34 30 Qq 39-41 31 Qq 17, 49 32 Q 5; C&AG’s report, paras 2.18-2.19 33 Q 49 34 C&AG’s report, paras 2.18-2.19 35 Q 25 36 Qq 8, 49 37 C&AG’s report, para 2.21 12 2 Supporting local transport authorities to deliver better bus services Choosing the right delivery model
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.