8. Will the Minister make a statement on the future of bus services in South Wales Central? OAQ55125

Yes, of course. Transport for Wales is assisting the Welsh Government in reviewing how bus services could be improved in the future to ensure that communities across Wales benefit from a modern, integrated public transport service.

Thank you. As the Minister will be well aware, the congestion charge for Cardiff is being consulted on; the council are pushing that forward as a proposal. I know that the Minister has been in consultation with them, which is good. Now, there is a major problem with the lack of public confidence in the public transport system in and around Cardiff, particularly since we haven't had a bus station in Cardiff for five years. Could you offer any reassurance that bus service provision in Cardiff itself, and into Cardiff, will improve?

As a result of a series of reforms and measures, I can offer that assurance, first and foremost. Although we've have had 10 years of austerity, we've been able to maintain the bus services support grant of £25 million since 2013. If austerity is truly coming to an end, then clearly there will be opportunities to increase the amount of funding allocated to support bus services across Wales, including in and around Cardiff.

Secondly, we're bringing forward to this Chamber proposals to legislate for the re-introduction of franchising to allow local authorities to run bus companies, to ensure that there is better open data and data gathering so that we can better integrate timetables for rail and for bus services. And we will be bringing forward enhanced quality partnerships to ensure that the experience that passengers have are improved and that the infrastructure in place to support bus services is enhanced as well. This is an incredibly exciting area of work. It's exciting because the work that this Welsh Labour Government is doing will address, finally, the failure of deregulation in the 1980s.

Thank you, Minister.