Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 29
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)
One digitally enabled service the Department has been supporting in 17 rural areas is demand-responsive transport, where smaller buses or taxis provide a link from rural areas into local towns. Passengers use an app to request journey times in advance.72 Demand responsive transport can provide a minimum level of transport connectivity for rural areas.73 The Department told us that each of the pilot demand-responsive schemes it had funded has since been extended at the local transport authority’s expense.74 Written evidence we received highlights several challenges with these schemes including difficulty in aggregating individual demands, low uptake (in part due to hesitations using an app-based system) and resulting costliness per user.75 We pressed the Department on how it is ensuring 66 Q 69 67 Transport Committee, Buses connecting communities, Third Report of Session 2024–25, HC 494, 13 August 2025, para 62 68 Q 69; C&AG’s report, Figure 13 69 As above 70 Qq 11, 33, 36; C&AG’s report, Figure 13 71 Confederation of Passenger Transport (LBS0026) 72 Q 74; Green Alliance (LBS0005) 73 Transport Committee, Buses connecting communities, Third Report of Session 2024–25, HC 494, 13 August 2025 74 Q 74 75 Green Alliance (LBS0005); John Geddes (LBS0005) 17 digital inclusion in its use of technology and the Department said it would ensure that there is a non-digital alternative, such as a phone line, where it funds services that are particularly reliant on digital.76 76 Q 72 18
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.