Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the accessibility by public transport of hospitals outside London.

The Bus Services Act 2017 will enable local authorities to take steps to improve service and grow passenger numbers. This could include introducing multi operator tickets, improved vehicle standards and better connections between transport modes, employment and housing. In terms of access to hospitals via public transport, the most recent statistics show that around 94% of the population of England can reach a large hospital within an hour by public transport or walking in urban areas. In rural areas this falls to around 59% of the population.

More generally, the Government is committed to making the transport system accessible to all users irrespective of the reason for or destination of the journey. The draft Accessibility Action Plan, published for consultation last year, set out a number of steps we will be taking across transport modes.