Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of further extending the bus fare cap.

The Government introduced the £2 fare cap on single bus tickets in England outside London on 1 January 2023 to help passengers save on their regular travel costs and to help increase patronage on buses. The Department for Transport’s interim report evaluating the first month of the scheme found that 10% of survey respondents were making more bus journeys since the scheme started, and around a third felt that the fare cap had had a positive impact on their cost of living. A survey conducted by Transport Focus of over 1,000 people also reported that 11% of respondents stated that they were using the bus more as a result of the cap.

This scheme was due to end on 30 June 2023, but on 17 May, the Department announced that the £2 cap would be extended for a further four months from 1 July until 31 October. This will be followed by a longer-term fare cap of £2.50 from 1 November 2023 to 30 November 2024, with both the extension to the £2 cap and the £2.50 cap being backed by further Government investment of up to £200 million.

The Department will continue to monitor the impact of the fare cap and use the results to inform future approaches, policies and interventions to support the bus sector.