Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she has taken to recruit more bus drivers.

Transport is a devolved matter, and the Department for Transport is responsible for transport in England only. Bus services in England are predominantly run on a commercial basis by private operators. Ultimate responsibility for recruiting bus drivers falls to individual operators.

The government recognises the sector has had issues recruiting and retaining bus drivers in England, Scotland and Wales, but this is now more of a localised issue. The Department held a Driver Shortages Summit in 2022 with industry, and local and national government attendees to identify actions to help resolve this. In April 2024, the Department subsequently launched a consultation to help support driver recruitment on measures to amend licensing restrictions which would enable 18- to 20-year-olds to drive a bus and coach over 50km when driving a regular service and enable some of the tests required to be passed in order to gain a driver certificate of professional competence to be taken before a provisional licence is issued. The Department is reviewing responses to the consultation and will publish a response in due course.