To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how much the Government has spent on concessionary bus travel for pensioners (a) in England and (b) in the City of York in each year since such schemes were introduced. (318579)

Before 1 April 2008, funding for the statutory minimum bus concession was provided exclusively through the formula grant system. Formula grant is an unhypothecated block grant and as such it is not possible to identify how much formula grant has been allocated to local authorities for any particular service, such as concessionary travel.

When the statutory minimum concession increased from half-fare to free fare in April 2006, additional funding of £350 million in 2006-07 and £367.5 million in 2007-08 was added to formula grant to fund the additional burden to local authorities.

From April 2008, the Department for Transport has provided additional special grant funding to local authorities to cover the extra costs of providing England-wide travel of:

(a) £212 million in 2008-09 and £217 million in 2009-10 to the whole of England;

(b) £1,112,199 in 2008-09 and £1,138,431 in 2009-10 to the City of York council.

The Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) continues to provide the bulk of concessionary travel funding to local authorities through formula grant.

The following table shows how much was spent on concessionary travel by all local authorities in England and by the City of York council since 2000, when the Government first introduced a statutory minimum bus concession. These figures include spending on both older and disabled travel concessions and include any discretionary enhancements offered by local authorities.