To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what considerations underlay the timing of the decision to put a further 30 London bus routes out to tender; and what assessment was made of the results of previous tendering.

The decision on which routes to put to tender could not be taken until the completion of the negotiations to put all London Buses Ltd. bus routes on to a contractual basis.Since its introduction in 1985 London Transport's route tendering programme has delivered substantial quality of service improvements and reductions in costs.