Since April of this year, young people have made over 0.5 million trips using their mytravelpass and, today, there are more than 17,000 pass holders. I accept that that proportion, the uptake, is not as high as we would wish it to be, and so the challenge is to encourage even more young people to do the same, to enhance our discounted bus travel scheme for younger people, and to make it easier for an entire generation to travel by bus. Last week, I was delighted to make good on our promise to consult on how a new Welsh Government scheme to be introduced in April of next year can best encourage more young people on to our buses. And I’d like to emphasise the point that was raised by Jeremy Miles: that it’s absolutely vital that those who stand to gain the most from any discounted travel scheme are at the heart of any decision that we make. The consultation on discounted bus travel for younger people in Wales aims to capture the views of young people, of schools, of community groups, of colleges, and of bus companies on a scheme that is both attractive and affordable—one that can practically support people in their life, in their work and in their study.

The consultation document invites comments about maintaining the existing provision or extending the scope of the current scheme to include, potentially, an increase in the upper age limit, increasing the level of discount, replacing the current reimbursement arrangement with a charge per journey, which is something that we see in many parts of Europe, and also on introducing a monthly or annual fee so as to retain free journeys at the point of travel. The consultation also considers extending the scheme to apprentices, only some of whom are currently eligible under existing arrangements. It also looks at potentially extending the scheme to volunteers, to carers, to recipients of education maintenance allowance and to all young people in further education. And I do recognise the benefits of such a scheme to many other people who actively contribute to society or who need assistance when embarking on a new career but who currently fall outside the age of eligibility. That’s why I’m particularly keen to explore what appetite there is for extending the age of discounted travel up to 24-year-olds, potentially allowing us to help more young people to make the most of bus travel right across Wales. The scheme, to be introduced in April 2018, will be one that best reflects the needs and preferences of our young people and helps further boost bus travel as an option. That’s essential if we are to create a sustainable bus network for the future.

In the current financial year, we have set aside up to £1 million to support the one third discount scheme. Any enhancement of the scheme can be expected to result in increased costs for compensating bus operators under what would continue to be a voluntary arrangement. Operators, though, who wish to be eligible for bus services support grant funding must offer the discount. The existing legislation, of course, means that we cannot make a younger persons’ discounted bus travel scheme mandatory, other than for 16 to 18-year-olds in full-time education, and I am very much sympathetic to the point that my colleague Jeremy Miles made regarding this matter.

I also welcome Jeremy Miles’s offer of a calculator to those Members who possess a broken abacus. His and Rhiannon Passmore’s forensic analysis of the Conservatives’ proposals I think demonstrates that there is a titanic hole in the numbers. I’ll outline again the reasons why those figures don’t stack up. Based on a 50 per cent uptake across the 16 to 24-year-old cohort, the cost would more likely be £78 million or upwards. That’s based on 50 per cent uptake. Now, we know that the Conservatives support our view that there should be more young people on the buses, so assuming an uptake, perhaps, of 100 per cent, which I’m sure everybody would like to see, that figure would rise to more than £150 million. Yet their budget of £25 million would allow for an uptake of just 16 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds. In turn, that would equate to approximately 17,700 16 to 18-year-olds; ironically, the very same uptake figure that the Conservatives were so critical of.

However, I do congratulate the Conservatives for entering this debate in a very co-operative manner. I think it’s very helpful that they have tabled this debate today to highlight just how much this Welsh Government has done and intends to do to support young people across all of our communities. To expect every young person, though, to forego the benefits of a car for all their journeys I think everybody in this Chamber would appreciate is probably unrealistic. But it is entirely realistic, Presiding Officer, for many young people to use the bus for more of their journeys, and I hope that many young people whose only experience of bus travel is the daily trip to and from school will take advantage of the new scheme to try the bus for other reasons, and having done so, they’ll see that today’s buses provide a really attractive offer.

Whilst reducing the cost of travel for young people is a priority to encourage use, I appreciate that it’s only part of the solution. Providing a bus product that is attractive and also efficient is equally essential, and anyone who has used a bus recently, I think, will recognise that the vast majority of vehicles on our roads offer a clean, comfortable and well-equipped environment. Yet unfortunately there remains an incorrect impression that buses are somehow a poorer relation to the private motor car. If this were ever the case, it is most certainly no longer true.

I’ve asked the Confederation of Passenger Transport, representing the bus industry, to develop proposals for a marketing campaign to publicise and promote today’s bus network, and subject to their proposals, I would hope to match-fund their financial contribution to any such campaign in order to drive up patronage. The new scheme I plan to introduce in April will be a better, more attractive means of encouraging younger people to use the bus for more of their journeys. The current scheme has made a good start, but we need to do more if we are to change attitudes.

Members will be aware of the bus summit that I held in January, and I’m pleased to say that a number of workshops are taking place this autumn to consider how best we can improve the passenger experience at bus stops by providing improved facilities and consistent passenger information; how we can also develop funding solutions that offer greater stability to the bus industry in Wales; and how we can deliver an integrated transport system that provides improved accessibility and ticketing solutions fit for the twenty-first century. This is our ambition, and it’s what we want to deliver. Thank you.