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Buses: Procurement

Asked by Mr Richard HoldenConservativeDepartment for TransportTabled Answered 17 March 2026UIN 118917

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 17 February 2026 to Question 111450, whether her Department holds information on the (a) grant funding awarded and (b) number of buses supported under each bus procurement and zero-emission bus support scheme funded in each of the last five years; and what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of social value weighting requirements in those schemes on tendered bus prices.

Answered by Simon Lightwood

Within the last five years there has been two zero emission bus programmes funded by the Government, ZEBRA and ZEBRA 2. The following tables present information on the amount of grant funding awarded and the number of zero emission buses funded through the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) programmes, by local transport authority. The numbers in this table are not official statistics: they are based on the latest information available and are therefore indicative and subject to change.

In relation to social value considerations, community benefit factors formed a component of assessment in ZEBRA 2. The procurement decisions and tender evaluations were then undertaken by the authorities and operators themselves, so the Department has made no further assessment of the potential impact of social value weighting requirements on tendered bus prices.

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