Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
50th Report - Local bus services in England
Public Accounts Committee
HC 892
Published 29 October 2025
Recommendations
10
Accepted
Department's vision for bus services remains vague regarding specific improvements and timelines.
Recommendation
We asked the Department what good performance looks like and when bus services will get there. The Department told us that the bill it is, at time of writing, sponsoring through Parliament sets out a clear vision for the bus …
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Government Response Summary
The government agreed to set out how it will clearly communicate its vision for bus services, including setting out what outcomes it wants to achieve and by when, with a target implementation date of April 2026, and intends to publish a summary of its vision for, and approach to, bus services in England outside London, and the overall outcomes the department seeks to achieve by the end of this Parliament.
HM Treasury
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11
Accepted
Fragmented short-term bus grant schemes hinder effective investment by operators and authorities.
Recommendation
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 …
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Government Response Summary
The government will consolidate bus funding through the Local Authority Bus Grant (LABG), which combines Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) funding and the Local Authority Bus Service Operators’ Grant (LA BSOG). Funding letters will set an expectation that the funding should be spent on eligible bus schemes, and a rural metric will be introduced for revenue LABG.
HM Treasury
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12
Accepted
Bus funding reform proceeding slowly for 12 years, with further delays anticipated.
Recommendation
We are concerned about the slow pace of reform to date.24 The Department has been attempting to reform its main bus grant to operators for 12 years.25 The Department told us it had been overtaken by events and had wanted …
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Government Response Summary
The government agreed to update the committee on its progress towards providing longer-term, consolidated funding to the bus sector and explain when it will be able to detail its plans more fully, including how it will reflect the additional challenges for rural areas and how it will ensure funding for buses is spent on buses, and has implemented the recommendation by consolidating bus funding and introducing a rural metric.
HM Treasury
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13
Accepted
Competitive bus grant allocation leads to unequal funding, failing to consider rurality.
Recommendation
The Department’s decision to allocate some grants competitively has meant funding per person varied significantly. On average, mayoral combined authorities received significantly more bus service improvement funding (£34 per person) than county councils (£19 per person).27 We asked the Department …
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Government Response Summary
The government agreed to update the committee on its progress towards providing longer-term, consolidated funding to the bus sector and explain when it will be able to detail its plans more fully, including how it will reflect the additional challenges for rural areas and how it will ensure funding for buses is spent on buses, and has implemented the recommendation by consolidating bus funding and introducing a rural metric.
HM Treasury
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14
Accepted
Unring-fenced bus grants face risk of diversion from intended services by local authorities.
Recommendation
The financial pressures on local authorities are such that the Department cannot be sure its bus grants to local areas will be spent on bus services if they are not ring-fenced. We asked the Department how it plans to ensure …
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Government Response Summary
The government agreed to update the committee on its progress towards providing longer-term, consolidated funding to the bus sector and explain when it will be able to detail its plans more fully, including how it will reflect the additional challenges for rural areas and how it will ensure funding for buses is spent on buses, and has implemented the recommendation by consolidating bus funding and introducing a rural metric.
HM Treasury
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15
Accepted
Department's inadequate monitoring hinders identification and support for under-performing bus service areas.
Recommendation
Local transport authorities achieve very different levels of bus service and the Department’s lack of monitoring means it cannot identify under-performing areas and help them improve.31 The Department does not have standard measures or defined outcomes for reliability, affordability, frequency …
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Government Response Summary
The government agreed to finalize a basket of measures and explain how it will use an outcomes framework to hold local transport authorities to account for their performance on bus services and support those performing less well by December 2026; this includes developing indicators and testing them with authorities.
HM Treasury
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16
Accepted
Department's evaluation programme lacks outcomes focus, providing poorly defined and unhelpful data.
Recommendation
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 …
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Government Response Summary
The department already has a Monitoring and Evaluating (M&E) programme in place for buses and is reviewing and further developing the programme following the Bus Services Act 2025 and wider departmental changes.
HM Treasury
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18
Accepted
Department remains complacent about significant financial risks of bus franchising for local authorities.
Recommendation
We were concerned the Department was being complacent about the significant level of financial risk for individual local transport authorities if they opt for franchising. The Department told us that some of the transition costs in Greater Manchester would have …
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Government Response Summary
The government agreed to support local transport authorities in understanding the benefits and risks of different models for running bus services and optimize how they work, including learning from the pilots of franchising models, providing guidance based on its review of enhanced partnerships, and promoting effective low-cost and no-cost approaches by Summer 2026.
HM Treasury
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20
Accepted
Enhanced partnerships demonstrate mixed success in improving bus services in rural areas.
Recommendation
We asked the Department whether the only way to deliver benefits to passengers was to pursue franchising, with the associated transfer of risks from the private to the public sector. The Department clarified that local transport authorities must choose between …
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Government Response Summary
The Department is committed to supporting local transport authorities to deliver better bus services and share learnings, including through the Bus Centre of Excellence, shared guidance and advice, a handbook and toolkit, active support and funding to local transport authorities exploring franchising, and updated guidance with actionable steps for Enhanced Partnerships, including an EP Manual.
HM Treasury
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21
Accepted
Local transport authorities' capacity for delivering bus services remains under significant strain.
Recommendation
Local transport authorities have had to scale back their transport planning and delivery capacity to focus on statutory functions such as social care. Further devolution and moves to franchising will considerably increase pressure on their capacity and capability to deliver …
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Government Response Summary
The government agreed to explain how it will make sure its support is targeted to the skills local transport authorities most need and identify and share, through the Bus Centre of Excellence, best practice that is tailored for areas with similar characteristics by Spring 2027.
HM Treasury
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22
Accepted
Target Bus Centre of Excellence support to specific outcomes and most-needed skills.
Recommendation
The Department established the Bus Centre of Excellence in 2023 to support the capability needs of the bus sector, providing free training courses and seminars to share skills and good practice for local government and bus sector staff.52 While we …
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Government Response Summary
The department will enhance Transport Focus' role to monitor bus service performance and outcomes, using an outcomes framework to identify effective practices. It will significantly expand the role of the Bus Centre of Excellence (BCoE), and have already conducted a survey of local transport authorities to identify capability needs.
HM Treasury
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23
Accepted
Department lacks insightful analysis explaining disparities in bus service performance across areas.
Recommendation
The Department’s focus, in what it told us, was on the best-performing local transport authorities around the country. This was at odds with experience in our constituencies, sometimes even in neighbouring counties.54 We questioned why there was such disparity in …
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Government Response Summary
The government agreed to explain how it will make sure its support is targeted to the skills local transport authorities most need and identify and share, through the Bus Centre of Excellence, best practice that is tailored for areas with similar characteristics by Spring 2027.
HM Treasury
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25
Accepted
Disabled people face persistent barriers to bus use due to inaccessible information and infrastructure.
Recommendation
Disabled people face persistent barriers to bus use, including lack of accessible travel information at bus stops and on-board, inaccessible ticketing systems and bus doors, as set out in evidence submitted by Transformative Transport Service Design Initiative.59 Further evidence from …
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Government Response Summary
The department will write to the Committee with a further update on its understanding of the barriers preventing concessionary travel within six months, and details of its plans to address them.
HM Treasury
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26
Accepted
Department acknowledges poorer bus experience for disabled people, with accessibility measures underway.
Recommendation
The Department acknowledged that disabled people have a poorer experience on buses and that it needs to do more. It told us about its various measures to help improve accessibility, such as supporting operators to implement improvements to audible and …
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Government Response Summary
The government agreed to write to the committee within six months setting out the specific barriers preventing elderly and disabled passengers getting back on buses and its plans to address them, with a target implementation date of April 2026.
HM Treasury
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27
Accepted
Roll-out of real-time bus information faces challenges despite open data compliance.
Recommendation
Technology could vastly improve bus passengers’ experience on England’s buses. For example, providing live updates on when a bus will next be stopping would reduce uncertainty and help passengers plan their journeys.65 We asked the Department what it is doing …
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Government Response Summary
The department will write to the committee within six months explaining how it is helping all local transport authorities implement improvements for bus passengers through better use of technology, and is committed to supporting local transport authorities in implementing technological improvements for bus passengers.
HM Treasury
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28
Accepted
Technological improvements like bus prioritisation and integrated ticketing enhance the bus passenger experience.
Recommendation
Other technological improvements which local areas have made include bus prioritisation and ticketing. Nottingham and Derbyshire are using interactive signalling to prioritise buses at busy junctions.69 Speeding up bus journeys can also be achieved by simplifying ticketing. The Department told …
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Government Response Summary
The government agreed to write to the committee within six months explaining how it is helping all local transport authorities implement improvements for bus passengers through better use of technology, with a target implementation date of April 2026, including supporting a national smart ticketing solution.
HM Treasury
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Conclusions (7)
2
Conclusion
Accepted
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 were short-term allocations, which has hindered local transport authorities’ ability …
Government Response Summary
The government has consolidated bus funding into the Local Authority Bus Grant (LABG) from 2025-26, announced allocations until 2029-30, and introduced a rural metric. Funding letters will set expectations for spending on bus schemes to prevent clawback or reduction.
3
Conclusion
Accepted
The Department does not know how it will measure local transport authorities’ performance on bus services. Bus service performance varies significantly across the country, yet the Department does not have the data it needs to identify under-performing areas and help them improve. Such measures might include reliability, affordability, frequency or …
Government Response Summary
The government is reviewing its monitoring and evaluation plan for bus interventions, with several evaluations completing in 2026 and 2027. It will develop an enhanced role for Transport Focus to monitor bus service performance using a consistent outcomes framework to identify and share best practices.
4
Conclusion
Accepted
The Department has not yet provided local transport authorities with the information they need to understand the relative merits of different bus operating models, including franchising. Franchising (whereby local transport authorities take on more responsibility for bus services and award contracts to private operators) gives local transport authorities more control …
Government Response Summary
The government is supporting local transport authorities (LTAs) by providing guidance, including a handbook on regulatory models published in November 2025, and offering funding and active support for those exploring franchising. It plans to publish updated guidance and an Enhanced Partnership Manual with advice on improvements and best practices.
5
Conclusion
Accepted
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. …
Government Response Summary
The government plans to significantly expand the role of the Bus Centre of Excellence (BCoE) with increased funding and enhance Transport Focus's role to monitor bus service performance. It will use a survey of LTAs and outcomes data to target support to address identified capability needs.
6
Conclusion
Accepted
The Department does not understand why elderly and disabled people are using buses far less than they used to. The Department could not adequately explain to us why elderly and disabled people have not returned to buses to the same extent as other passengers since the pandemic. The number of …
Government Response Summary
The government committed to working with local transport authorities (LTAs) to promote the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) and ensure accessible application processes. It will embed promotional expectations in guidance and funding conditions, and intends to request evidence from LTAs on their actions to improve promotion and accessibility.
7
Conclusion
Accepted
Bus passenger experience is variable across the country in part due to patchy implementation of technology. The Department’s open data system should enable bus passengers to access real-time information for any bus in England, but this does not match bus users’ experience. Only 16% of respondents to a recent bus …
Government Response Summary
The government is funding technological improvements through Bus Service Improvement Plans and supporting the implementation of a national, contactless smart ticketing solution outside London. It is also helping local transport authorities use data via the Analyse Bus Open Data Service and providing guidance through the Bus Centre of Excellence.
1
Conclusion
Accepted
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Department for Transport (the Department) on local bus services in England outside London.1 This report excludes bus services in London, which has for many years had a different delivery and funding model from …
Government Response Summary
The government will set out its approach to bus services in England outside London and the overall outcomes it seeks to achieve by the end of the current Parliament in the next few months. It will monitor outcomes at the local level through an outcomes framework, but will not set national quantitative targets.