Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of (a) employment, (b) recruitment and (c) retention of bus drivers.

My Department is working closely with ADEPT and CPT to gather information to gain an understanding of, and assess, the current staffing levels and recruitment pipeline in the bus sector. This will inform the Department about the extent of the shortages across the country, so that this can be monitored as the situation develops and ensure that Government’s response is appropriate and effective. The Government is committed to maintaining high service levels for bus users to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 and has announced £226.5 million in Bus Recovery Funding to support this.