To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much funding the Government are providing to West Lancashire district council to provide free bus travel for (a) older and (b) disabled persons; and whether it plans to use all of this funding to provide free travel. (83466)

The funding for concessionary fares is provided through revenue support grant which is unhypothecated; therefore the funding for concessionary fares is not separately identified. It is for local authorities to deicide on their overall funding priorities based on their judgment of local need and circumstances.

Pensioners and disabled people in England have had an entitlement to free off-peak local bus travel, from April 2006, which will be extended in April 2008 to free off-peak bus travel across the country.