asked the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the impact of shared taxi schemes since deregulation of buses.

Deregulation is proving a success story across the country as a whole; services have been broadly maintained while many local authorities have achieved substantial savings in subsidy levels.Innovation in forms of public transport is also being introduced. Over 150 towns and cities now have minibus services, and taxi operators are running some 55 local regular services. The Department will be introducing a shared taxi scheme in London later this year. I have no doubt that the taxi trade and the local authorities will then make increasing use of the new opportunities provided by the Transport Act 1985 for both regular local services and shared taxi schemes as a means of improving services for the public.