I'm pleased to say that it remains my intention to set out our detailed proposals for reforming how we plan and deliver local bus services in the near future, and as part of those proposals I'll be keen to ensure that community transport providers will be able to bid for public sector contracts to provide essential public services. The motion calls for the Welsh Government to take action in support of the community transport sector in Wales, and I'm pleased to report to Members that action is taking place. We have been working in partnership with the community transport sector for many years, and we will continue to do so. Core funding has been provided to the Community Transport Association for a number of years to support and develop the sector, and this funding will be maintained in 2018-19. Yes, the UK Government announced last month additional funding of £250,000 to provide advice and support for operators who may need to apply for public service vehicle operator licences, but Mark Isherwood is right that this is a relatively tiny sum of money and we need clarity about how much Wales can expect to receive.

Working together with the sector in Wales, we also need to consider very carefully the potential impact of any changes the UK Government has proposed to the community transport permit regime. The public service operator regime is more rigorous than the permit regime, and it's right that this should be the case. But simply forcing operators to incur these potential additional costs when the benefits to passengers are negligible is not a viable solution. Operators must be permitted to operate services to passengers under the most appropriate licensing regime.

Now that we are in a position to assess the potential impact of the UK Government's proposals for the community transport permit regime, we are working with the CTA in Wales to develop contingency plans to mitigate any potentially negative impact on services provided under the community transport permit regime. One of the key themes emerging from the bus summit that I hosted in Wrexham last year was the need for a more stable funding agreement between the Welsh Government, the public sector and the bus industry. I think this has been well recognised since the summit, and in the challenging financial climate that persists for the public sector, I've continued to prioritise the funding provided for local bus services. I've maintained the level of support for the bus services support grant at £25 million for a fifth year, and my guidance to local authorities states that not less than 5 per cent of this funding should be set aside to support community transport in their local areas. Our indicative budget for the next two years thereafter further maintains this budget commitment, so we are providing the funding stability needed to plan and deliver our local bus services.

I have to say I was, though, astonished to hear some comments from the Conservatives that would suggest that this Government is to blame for the fragility of local bus services and for creaking rail infrastructure. The fact is that, firstly, bus services are vulnerable due to the disaster of deregulation by a Conservative Government in the mid 1980s, and secondly, rail structure is creaking because of dreadful underfunding of the Welsh route network because of decisions by the Department for Transport in the current control period, where barely more than 1 per cent of funding has been allocated for the Wales route, in spite of the fact that it contains around 10 per cent of track.

But rather than get dragged down into a pointless political point-scoring exercise, I wish to instead pay tribute to the community transport sector for keeping this item right at the top of the transport agenda. It's disappointing that continued use of the community transport regime in Britain has been the subject of so much uncertainty. I'm sure every Member in this Chamber would agree. I also agree with the findings of the House of Commons Transport Committee that, however well intentioned, some of the comments included in the Department for Transport's letter of 31 July last year could be deemed to be ill-judged. The public consultation that has subsequently been published goes some way to alleviate some of the concerns across the sector, and whilst we can welcome the commitment to retain the community transport permit regime, there is still work to be done to persuade the UK Government that some of the changes that have been proposed remain a deep cause for concern. 

One such example, Deputy Presiding Officer, is the restriction on permit operators being able to bid for public service contracts—only if public service operators have declined to do so. In some areas, competition from community transport providers may be the only competition for public sector contracts. Deputy Presiding Officer, I'll be sharing my views and that of the sector in Wales with the Department for Transport as part of this consultation, and given its importance to the provision of local bus services to some of the most vulnerable people and communities in Wales, it's my intention to share this information and my formal response with Members of the National Assembly.