Written Question: Allocating Bus Subsidies

Lord Moylan:  To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their announcement on 17 November regarding £1 billion in funding for bus services, when they will publish the formula for allocation.

Minister of State, Department for Transport, Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill, CBE): The way funding has been allocated to local authorities represents a change from previous methodologies to a fairer and simpler system, moving away from a competitive process. This funding for local authorities to deliver their Bus Service Improvement Plans has been allocated based on local needs, considering three factors, equally weighted. These are:

• The level of population, the greater the population of the local transport authority the more money they will receive;

• The distance covered by buses in the authority, the greater the tendered bus mileage, the more money they will receive; and

• The index of multiple deprivation, published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. This is the official measure of relative deprivation in England.