To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what additional support his Department has provided to Staffordshire County Council to help run continued rural bus services.

The Government has provided over £2bn of support for local transport networks to date through emergency and recovery grants to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic.

The Government has announced a further £150m in funding for local transport providers to continue supporting the sector following the Covid-19 pandemic from April until October 2022. A condition of this new funding is that both Local Transport Authorities and operators must work together to ensure that effective and financially sustainable networks which cater for the needs of the local public are implemented once recovery funding ends. As part of this, £355,014 has been allocated to Staffordshire County Council to support local bus services, in addition to the funding provided to bus operators directly.

The Department has also provided a Rural Mobility Fund (RMF) worth £20 million to trial more demand responsive services and have awarded funding to 17 pilot projects. Staffordshire County Council was awarded £1,038,091 to pilot demand responsive transport services in the Staffordshire Moorlands.