---

Public Transport

The hon. Gentleman seems to have got into a bit of a muddle about the order in which the allocations were made. As I have said, when we consulted local authorities about the approach that they wished us to take, the formulae that I have set out proved the most popular. It is up to authorities to inform the Department of, for instance, visitor numbers or the amount of retail floor space. I should add that, according to the most recent annual figures available to us for Worthing's expenditure on concessionary fares, its special grant allocation for this year is 42 per cent. higher than the amount they said themselves was previously spent on concessionary fares. In our response to the Committee's report, we said that we would commission research on reimbursement arrangements to look at the latest evidence on the number of passengers generated by local and national schemes, the revenue forgone by bus operators and the additional costs. We also want to work closely with bus operators and local authorities to share the evidence. The research will explore the scope for more simplistic and deterministic ways of setting reimbursement, such as, perhaps, a table of payments for different regions and area types. But it is important to remember that, within this framework, local authorities have three-year settlements. We want to make sure that we do not disrupt agreements that have been reached, but we want to make sure that we are researching in the way that the Committee has suggested to look at potential suggestions from bus companies and authorities.