I am writing under the Freedom of Information Act to request the following information.

1. What was your local authority’s overall spend on supported bus services in the following financial years? Please break the totals down by services that are partially subsidised and those that are fully subsidised.
i. 2017/18:
ii. 2018/19: £895,820
iii. 2019/20: £804,563
iv. 2020/21: £1,171,108
v. 2021/22: £1,172,121
Technically all but 1 of the routes are fully supported because the Council tenders for full routes, it would be up to an operator if they wanted to bid for a route by combining it with one which is already commercial. The Tiger 7 operated by Reading Buses is partially subsidised as it is only the Evening and Sunday journeys which are supported. In each year the subsidy for these journeys was £32,985.55 which should be deducted from the above totals to give the amount apportioned to the fully subsidised routes. The above totals do not include subsidy provided by the DfT as a result of Covid, this information can be found here: https://www.myjourneywokingham.com/media/3769/covid-19-cbssg.pdf

2. How many bus routes in the following financial years were subsidised by your local authority? Please break the totals down by whether services were partially subsidised or fully subsidised.
i. 2017/18:
ii. 2018/19: 20
iii. 2019/20: 20
iv. 2020/21: 20
v. 2021/22: 20

3.
a) How many subsidised bus routes have been closed by your local authority in the following financial years? Please break the totals down by whether services were partially subsidised or fully subsidised.
i. 2017/18
ii. 2018/19: 0
iii. 2019/20: 0
iv. 2020/21: 0
v. 2021/22: 0
b) Please could you provide details of any routes that have been closed within answer 3a, including the number of the bus route, the bus provider and the names of the first and last bus stops.
Not applicable

4. In the following financial years, how many subsidised bus routes – not including those that have closed – saw either a reduction in vehicles operating the route or a reduction in hours of operation? Please break the totals down by whether services were partially subsidised or fully subsidised.
i. 2017/18
ii. 2018/19
iii. 2019/20
iv. 2020/21
v. 2021/22
The Council does not keep records of this information. As far as I can remember, no supported routes have seen a reduction in their operation or the PVR allocated to the routes. We increased PVR in Feb 2020 which would show in 2020/21 figures, this was as part of bus strategies associated with new development.

5. How many subsidised bus routes are currently under review with regards to their continuation? Please break the totals down by whether services are partially subsidised or fully subsidised.
All subsidised bus routes form part of our current review as we need to check that continue to be socially necessary, they still represent value for money in their current form and that funding is prioritised on the right routes.