§ Mr. BreedTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to his answer of 8 July 2002,Official Report, column 667W, how much has been (a) made available and (b) spent through the rural bus subsidy grant in each of the last five years, broken down by region; and if he will provide a regional breakdown of those services established through the rural bus subsidy grant scheme. [69351]
§ Mr. Jamieson[holding answer 12 July 2002]The first table shows the annual amounts of rural bus subsidy grant allocated for local authorities in each region. It also shows by region the amount of grant paid to authorities
16Win each year which was dependent on their estimates of annual expenditure taking account of any grant unspent from a previous year. In 1998–99, the first year of this scheme, grant not required was reallocated and added to the amount distributed to schemes successful in that year's Rural Bus Challenge competition.
£ million Region 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 South East Allocation 6.18 6.18 6.18 7.89 9.03 Paid 4.55 6.14 6.04 7.77 NA South West Allocation 6.36 6.36 6.36 8.12 9.29 Paid 6.19 6.35 6.46 7.83 NA East Allocation 5.61 5.61 5.61 7.16 8.20 Paid 4.00 5.59 5.31 7.01 NA West Midlands Allocation 3.40 3.40 3.40 4.34 4.97 Paid 2.16 3.33 3.32 4.12 NA East Midlands Allocation 4.09 4.09 4.09 5.22 5.98 Paid 3.02 4.04 3.84 5.21 NA North West Allocation 2.65 2.65 2.65 3.38 3.87 Paid 1.97 2.55 2.58 3.22 NA Yorkshire and Humberside Allocation 2.88 2.88 2.88 3.68 4.21 Paid 1.17 2.88 2.86 3.59 NA North East Allocation 1.33 1.33 1.33 1.70 1.94 Paid 1.07 1.12 1.29 1.65 NA The second table shows the regional totals of new or improved services being supported by the grant in 2000–01, including those started in previous years. This has been compiled from local authority returns. Data are still being collected on 2001–02.
Regions Services South East 233 South West 389 East 147 West Midlands 259 East Midlands 242 North West 168 Yorkshire and Humberside 183 North East 111