Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of allocating additional funding for volunteer led community transport schemes.

The Department makes available over £3 million each year to community transport operators through the Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG), supporting them to continue delivering inclusive and accessible transport across the country.

An uplift of 60% has been added to BSOG claims for community transport operators until 31 March 2025. This means operators will receive £1.60 for every £1 claimed, reflecting the increased costs faced by the sector.

We also encourage Local Transport Authorities to engage with community transport operators when preparing their Bus Service Improvement Plans which are vital in setting out an areas’ long term plans for bus services and how they will be improved.

The bus fare cap, only available in England, has proven popular with bus passengers in communities across England, particularly in rural and non-metropolitan areas, where our statistics show the overall price of bus fares between September 2022 and September 2023 dropped by almost 11%.

Our £20 million Rural Mobility Fund (RMF) in England, also devolved, is supporting 16 innovative, demand-led minibus trials in rural and suburban areas across 16 local authorities in England. These pilots are exploring whether Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) can serve these communities more effectively than traditional public transport solutions alone.