Whilst I am pleased that the headline results appear to overwhelmingly support my outline proposals for improving local bus services in the longer term, I am conscious that some bus operators continue to have reservations about the potential for the introduction of bus franchising in Wales. I have asked my officials to continue to work with local authorities and with bus operators in Wales to shape detailed proposals that I hope to consult on early next year. I’m keen to address these concerns and enable us to better meet our shared and mutual objectives, which I set out in the consultation document. The forthcoming workshops that are planned for this autumn, following the bus summit that took place in January, will provide an excellent opportunity to develop our thinking on these very important issues.

To recap, our long-term aims for our local services are to increase the number of people of all ages using buses for their daily commute to work, for education, for access to health services and for leisure purposes; the availability of good-quality and accessible local bus services for passengers as part of an integrated Welsh public transport system comprising a mix of demand-responsive or scheduled local transport, together with longer distance express bus services that complement passenger rail services; the establishment of national and regional integrated ticketing products to better enable seamless multimodal transportation; to enable bus operators to contribute to the development and the delivery of the south-east Wales and north-east Wales metro public transport systems; a fair deal for passengers, staff, bus operators and the public sector; a financially viable, sustainable and transparent approach to the imposition of public service obligations, with an appropriate level of compensation to operators and stable public funding arrangements generally that provide value for money and complement the best characteristics of the commercial bus sector; and, finally, to contribute to safeguarding the well-being of future generations by tackling poor air-quality zones, whilst also supporting a sustainable and thriving economy.

I consider that these objectives are consistent with the aims we are seeking to achieve as part of our national strategy published last month, ‘Prosperity for All’. Whilst the policy consultation document published on 8 March about the future planning and delivery of local bus services in Wales contained information about the mandatory concessionary fares scheme and its operation in Wales, no specific questions were asked at that time about the scheme and it future operation. Some respondents did, however, take the opportunity to tell us what their thoughts were about the scheme. One suggestion put forward by a major bus operator was that the Welsh Government should take direct control of concessionary travel administration and reimbursement. Additionally, 88 per cent of respondents expressing a preference agreed that the Welsh Government should have the power to set up regional and national ticketing schemes.

These responses suggest that people want the Welsh Government to take a more active role in the planning and delivery of local bus services, and so, on that basis, I am today launching a public consultation about the management arrangements for administering mandatory concessionary fares. We need to explore whether responsibility for this scheme should remain with our local authorities or whether this all-Wales scheme should be administered centrally by the Welsh Government. But I am keen that we use this opportunity to ask some fundamental questions about what the scheme provides to pass holders in the future.

An increasingly ageing and active population requires that careful consideration is given about how we maintain this important scheme into the future. Based on current forecasts, we can reasonably expect the number of people aged 60 and over eligible for free bus travel to increase to about 880,000 by 2021, rising to more than a million by 2030. So, we have challenges that need to be addressed to ensure that our commitment is sustainable for the future. But let me be absolutely clear: this Government’s commitment to maintaining free bus travel for older people, disabled people and some injured service veterans is unshakeable. The Welsh Government meets most of the cost of the all-Wales scheme—currently about £60 million annually—with about £10 million being met by local authorities. Additionally, the Welsh Government funds the cost of retaining and analysing concessionary pass data, which is held by a third party on behalf of all 22 local authorities. Information gathered on pass usage suggests that around two thirds of passes issued each year are being used, with the rest retained just in case they are required.

There are currently more than 750,000 passes in circulation. During 2015-16, about 35,000 passes were issued to people meeting the eligibility criteria for the first time, with a further 25,000 or so passes being issued as replacements. About 10 per cent of passes in circulation have been issued to disabled people and disabled people with companions to improve access to our local bus network to help people live independently. But to ensure we are able to continue to support people to live independently for longer and well into the future, we have a responsibility to ensure that our scheme remains financially sustainable to meet the needs of a growing, ageing population.

In addition to older and disabled people, the scheme also provides free bus travel to injured service veterans, and we remain committed to ensuring that our public services continue to meet the needs of our injured service veterans, to whom we owe a great debt of gratitude. On this basis, we are seeking views on how best access to free bus travel in Wales can be maintained into the future.

In undertaking this consultation, I am also convinced that we should consider other groups that could benefit from lower cost bus travel as part of the transport contribution to our ‘Prosperity for All’ strategy. In February, I extended our younger persons discounted bus travel scheme for a further year, and today I am also pleased to begin a consultation about how our scheme for younger people can be developed and delivered in the future to encourage more young people to use buses to meet their daily travel needs. The consultation will encourage and consider views from interested individuals, from groups and from organisations across Wales, and will look at how best to facilitate bus use amongst young people.

The younger persons discounted fare scheme consultation will last until 4 January 2018. Since April 2017, young people have made over 0.5 million trips using mytravelpass, the Welsh Government scheme providing young people with discounted bus travel in Wales. This illustrates the importance of this scheme to those users, but I wish to encourage even more young people to use buses by developing a new discounted bus travel scheme for younger people. I also hope that many young people whose only experience of bus travel is the daily trip to and from school will take advantage of an improved scheme to try the bus for other reasons and, having done so, they will see that today’s buses provide a really attractive offer.

This scheme is currently based on a voluntary agreement between local bus companies and the Welsh Government, supported by local authorities. We need to give consideration to whether this scheme could be better delivered as part of a scheme delivered on the same terms as the older persons scheme—a mandatory scheme, rather than a voluntary one. We should also consider the needs of the many people who are volunteering in our communities. We should actively consider whether there are opportunities to expand the current schemes to better meet the needs of people in our society.

I believe that free bus travel makes a valuable contribution to improving the health and well-being of older people in Wales, enabling more people to remain active for longer, and so promotes independent living. The consultation on the mandatory scheme will be open until 12 January and, based on the results, which I will, again, publish, we will consider how best we can maintain our free bus travel scheme into the future in a climate of an ageing population and increasing pressures on the resources available to us. I do think that today provides an excellent opportunity to consider both these schemes and how best we can deliver them into the future