Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the progress made by local authorities in increasing the provision of audio visual next stop and final destination on-board announcements on local buses through the Better Bus Area fund.

The 2012 Better Bus Area fund awarded some £70 million to 24 successful local authorities after a competitive process. Better Bus Area proposals involved a broad range of interventions including, in some cases, the introduction of audio visual systems on selected bus services. Schemes were anticipated to take 2 years to finalise, with a completion date of 31 March 2014. Officials are currently in the process of gathering final reports from each area ahead of examining the progress that has been made.