I’d like to thank Russell George for his questions, and also for welcoming the five-point plan. This is a plan that’s been devised with partners in local government and within the industry itself. It contains a number of actions that will shore up the industry in the short term as we look at the long-term opportunities presented through the transfer of powers in the Wales Bill.

In terms of funding, the Welsh Government has maintained the bus services support grant now for a number of years, and we’re pleased to be able to maintain it at £25 million again next year. The challenge for local government is to ensure that they do not cut the availability of resources within their own authorities to support, in particular, rural routes that are not commercially viable.

We do also provide capital funding that amounts to approximately £15 million. In terms of concessionary travel, of course, we provide opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people to travel without charge. There is, without a doubt, a need to use integrated ticketing—until we have the powers that will come through the Wales Bill—to drive integrated transport. We know, through experiences across Wales so far, that integrated ticketing can be a challenge for many bus service operators, but it is not an insurmountable one. In terms of opportunities, moving forward, for integrated ticketing, the Competition and Markets Authority wrote to all local authorities about competition, co-operation and partnership working in local bus markets, and reiterated its support for well-designed multi-operated ticketing schemes.

The Bus Services Bill, which I think the Member raised as well, is predominantly relevant only to England, but it does include an interesting provision that would allow local authorities to require bus operators to market and advertise multi-operated tickets clearly and consistently. It’s my view that, with the availability of multi-operator ticketing, we will see, as a consequence, a more integrated approach to bus service provision. That said, with the Wales Bill, we will have powers that will enable the regulation of local bus services brought into the competence of the National Assembly. Together with our existing legislative competence, we’ll be able to introduce a framework for bus services that will enable a far improved service network, greater quality, more regular bus services and greater reliability and punctuality. That said, until we have those powers and we’re able to design the framework, there are also the voluntary quality bus standards, which can be used in particular to challenge perceptions.

I know that what the Member raised about the widespread views of bus transport are held by many and are a barrier to many accessing bus services. In terms of the voluntary Welsh bus quality standard, there are a number of points that need to be achieved in the standard for bus companies to satisfactorily qualify. They include the operation of vehicles that are compliant with the public service vehicle accessibility regulations, and ensuring that vehicles have working destination blinds that are clearly visible, telling passengers about the destination and key stopping points along the routes. Buses need to be clean inside and out, and ready for the first service each day. Drivers must have a uniform—it seems basic stuff, but it’s the sort of provision that ensures that people actually respect the bus service as being of a high quality. They must also have a published passenger complaints policy, and larger bus companies will be expected to operate all-year visual next-bus-stop announcements on newer buses.

I think that the provisions within these voluntary standards are challenging perceptions, but there is a need, I believe, for the industry to do more collectively, in particular, to appeal to younger passengers. The Member raised the question of whether younger carers could be offered concessionary fares. Where a younger carer falls through the gap of the concessionary fare system at present, I’d be more than willing to consider offering opportunities for them to travel at a reduced or free rate. There would, of course, be a need to ensure that the system is operating fairly, not least given the legal cases concerning fraud in north Wales that have contributed to a reduction in the number of passenger journeys on the bus network. But I would not be averse to considering any opportunities that need to be presented for carers to be able to access employment opportunities, education, or indeed to travel to and from the places of care.