The Bus Services (Wales) Bill was introduced into the Senedd on Monday 31 March 2025.
This page pulls together key Senedd Research publications to support scrutiny of the Bill. It will be updated as the Bill makes its way through the Senedd’s legislative process.
You can follow progress on the Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee’s webpage on the Bill. From this page you can access a copy of the Bill and the Explanatory Memorandum (EM), which includes Explanatory Notes and a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA).
Senedd Research publications
- Senedd Research article: Bus services on life support: how did we get here? This article is the first of a two part series from 2023 looking at bus services in anticipation of the Bill. In this article we considered the challenges facing the industry in Wales and explored what’s behind performance issues.
- Senedd Research article: Bus services on life support: can franchising deliver for Wales? This article is the second article in our two part series from 2023. In this article we looked at what we expected from the Bill and how stakeholders had responded to the proposals.
- Senedd Research guest research briefing: Bus franchising: a literature review of international practice. In 2024 Senedd Research commissioned Daniel Johnson, Professor Chris Nash and Professor Andrew Smith, Leeds University Institute for Transport Studies, to review academic and other literature on international approaches to bus franchising.
- Senedd Research Bilingual Glossary. Provides a list of technical and novel terms used in the Bill. It’s intended to help bilingual scrutiny.
Article by Andrew Minnis, Senedd Research, Welsh Parliament
