Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the proposed Buses Bill, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on competition in the bus services market of bus operators retaining vehicle fleets, depots and other strategic assets when bus services are franchised.

The actual competition impacts will depend on how franchising is implemented at the local level. The Department’s high level assessment of the potential competition impacts of the Buses Bill proposals will be set out in the Impact Assessment which will accompany the introduction of the Bill. Individual local authorities will be better placed to conduct a detailed competition assessment of any changes they propose to make to their local bus market in light of the Bill.