According to the GOV.UK notice, the Senior Traffic Commissioner for Great Britain has opened a consultation on local bus service performance standards. The exercise asks operators, local authorities, passenger groups and other stakeholders whether the present approach remains fit for purpose and how it should change to reflect industry, legislative and technological change. The review centres on Statutory Document No. 14, which sets out how traffic commissioners approach regulatory action when services do not meet expected standards. The notice states that the document has not had a major review for more than a decade and that the current work sits within a wider objective to keep statutory guidance relevant, proportionate and effective.
The consultation's main policy question is whether the longstanding punctuality benchmark still works in 2026. Under the existing expectation, 95% of services should run within a window of one minute early to five minutes late. That test has been part of the sector's regulatory framework for years, but the consultation signals that it may no longer fit every operating model. The GOV.UK summary says the review will examine whether the same standard should continue unchanged or whether a more differentiated approach is now required.
The document also asks how standards should apply across different service types, including frequent services and flexible routes. That matters because timetable compliance can look very different on a high-frequency urban corridor than on a demand-responsive or lightly used rural route. The consultation further asks what should count as a reasonable excuse for poor performance and what positive action by an operator ought to be recognised as mitigation. In practical terms, this goes to the evidence base for enforcement: when under-performance reflects avoidable management failure, and when commissioners should take account of steps already taken to correct it.
According to the consultation notice, there is also a live question about what should happen before a case moves to formal regulatory action. The call for evidence asks whether clearer guidance is needed where performance drops below the expected standard, including the place of improvement plans in bringing services back into compliance. For operators, that point is more than procedural. Clearer expectations around improvement plans would set out what remedial action commissioners may expect to see before enforcement begins.
The review extends beyond punctuality. The GOV.UK text states that respondents are also being asked how traffic commissioners should respond when operators fail to meet duties under the Public Service Vehicles (Open Data) (England) Regulations 2020. That brings data compliance into the same discussion as service reliability. If the guidance is updated, operators may face a clearer connection between open data compliance, passenger information quality and regulatory consequences where required information is missing or inaccurate.
A further strand concerns traffic management and franchising. The consultation asks how powers under the Traffic Management Act 2004 might be used to obtain information from local authorities where network conditions are affecting bus performance, and what the appropriate regulatory response should be where services operate without the required authority in franchised areas. Those questions widen the frame from operator conduct alone to the conditions in which services run. They also reflect the changing structure of the bus market, where local network management, franchising arrangements and operator compliance can each affect whether services meet passenger expectations.
The GOV.UK notice adds that emerging technology, including real-time passenger information, should be considered when setting future regulatory expectations. Kevin Rooney, the Senior Traffic Commissioner, said the aim is to keep the regulatory approach aligned with changes in the industry while continuing to support reliable, high-quality local bus services. Responses are open to individuals as well as organisations and can be submitted by email or post using the consultation materials published on GOV.UK. The evidence received will inform updates to statutory guidance and statutory directions, meaning this exercise will shape how bus performance is assessed and enforced in the next version of Statutory Document No. 14.