Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding he plans to allocate from the public purse to improving bus services in the financial years (a) 2020-2021, (b) 2021-2022, (c) 2022-2023 and (d) 2023-2024.

Allocations for future funding for 2021/22 and beyond are subject to the upcoming Spending Review due to conclude in July. On February 2020 the PM announced a 5-year package of £5 billion of new funding to overhaul bus and cycling links across England outside of London.

The Department for Transport has set the following budget for 2020/21:

£259 million for Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) and a budget of £220m for the ‘Better Deal for Bus Users’ package.

Further to this, in previous years local authorities have spent:

• Around £1 billion spent by local authorities on Concessionary Travel for disabled and older people using non-ringfenced funding provided by MHCLG; and

• £930 million of support that local authorities provide for bus services from their own funds, including Government's grant to them.