The Government pays over £200 million directly to bus operators every year through the Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) to help keep fares down and maintain a larger network than would otherwise be possible. The Government also provides £42 million annually in BSOG funding to Local Transport Authorities, of which Suffolk County Council receives almost £615,000, to fund socially necessary bus services.<\/p>
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Since 1 January, the majority of single bus journeys in England outside London have been capped at £2 thanks to Government support via the Bus Fare Cap Grant. The initial phase of the scheme, through to 31 March, is backed by up to £60 million. On 17 February, we announced that we will provide up to £75 million to extend the £2 bus fare cap until 30 June 2023<\/p>
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This takes total Government funding to over £2 billion in emergency and recovery funding to Local Transport Authorities and bus operators since March 2020, of which Suffolk County Council has been allocated over £5 million. This is in addition to the funding we have provided directly to bus operators to maintain bus services through this route.<\/p>
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Suffolk County Council has also been allocated £824,737 in capacity and capability funding for bus service improvements for the period 2021/22 to 2024/25. This funding is intended to support them with employing dedicated resource for the next three years to help deliver their Bus Service Improvement Plans and Enhanced Partnerships.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4813", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Mr Richard Holden"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "North West Durham"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Mr Richard Holden"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2023-02-27", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "groupedQuestionUIN" : {"_value" : "147235"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2023-02-27T14:42:22.097Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "27"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Transport"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Transport"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2023-02-17", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Bus Services: Suffolk"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for bus services in Suffolk.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4771", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Tom Hunt"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Ipswich"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Tom Hunt"} ], "uin" : "147236"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }