Will the Minister provide a breakdown by local authority of the proportion of their education budgets being spent on school transport?
Local authorities have statutory responsibility for school transport under the Learner Travel (Wales) Measure 2008. The Welsh Government provides funding to local authorities for pre-16 provision in schools through the Local Government Revenue Settlement in the form of the Revenue Support Grant (RSG). The RSG is not ring-fenced; the funding allocated to each authority is available to the authority to spend as it sees fit on the range of services for which it is responsible, including school transport. In determining the level of funding required to deliver their statutory duties local authorities may draw on other sources of funding outside the RSG.
In 2021/22 local authorities reported a total spend of £137 million on home to school transport. The latest published data outlining local authority spend on education, including learner travel, is available at the following link and provides: Education revenue outturn expenditure, by authority and service (£ thousand) (gov.wales). This data is due to be updated later this month.