§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the total subsidy provided by passenger transport authorities to private bus operators in(a) England and (b) West Yorkshire in the last year for which figures are available. [10258]
§ Mr. WattsThe provisional estimate for 1995–96 of subsidy of local bus services by passenger transport authorities in England, excluding the cost of concessionary fares schemes, is £105 million. The statistics collected do not distinguish between support given to services run by private operators and those run by the relatively small number of operators which remain in the public sector. The figures for 1995–96 for West Yorkshire is approximately £22 million.