Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment of the effectiveness of the Bus Back Better strategy.

The National Bus Strategy contains a significant number of commitments to improve bus services, including government investment of more than £1 billion for Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs).

With that funding recently confirmed, and payments now being made to Local Transport Authorities, the Department for Transport has established a monitoring and evaluation programme to build the evidence base on improving services and increasing patronage. This includes the monitoring and evaluation of the impact and value for money of initiatives funded through the BSIP programme; and the impact of the National Bus Strategy as a whole. Interim findings from the evaluation will be published in due course.