Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of local authorities running their local bus services in the event a bus company moves into administration.

Under the Transport Act (1985) all bus operators in England must give their respective local transport authority and Traffic Commissioner a combined 70 days’ notice of their intention to permanently cancel any existing bus services.

Where an existing operator intends to withdraw from the market, the local transport authority can use this time to broker discussions with remaining operators, to determine whether and to what extent they intend to operate any of those withdrawn services commercially. Moreover, the notice period described above can be reduced to help quickly register replacement services, helping to ensure continuity for passengers.

The local authority also has powers under the 1985 Act to secure the provision of any services that will not be operated commercially, if it considers them to be socially necessary.