The Department for Transport is not responsible for issuing passes and so does not maintain records of how many applications individual authorities have received.
Gateshead and Sunderland are part of the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive (Nexus). The last information held by the Department was that as of 7 April this year Nexus had submitted approximately 222,702 applications for the new smartcard concessionary passes for older and disabled people to their pass supplier.