Form

Bus Service Operators Grant: guidance for community transport operators

Updated 29 February 2024

Applies to England

The Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) is a discretionary grant paid to eligible community transport operators to help them recover some of their fuel costs. The amount each operator receives is based on the amount of fuel they use running eligible services.

BSOG aims to benefit organisations by:

• helping to keep running costs down
• enabling organisations to run services that might otherwise be unviable and be cancelled

Organisations in receipt of the grant must keep accurate records of the eligible kilometres run and the fuel consumed in running community transport services so as to satisfy officers of the Department for Transport (DfT) that the figures on the claim are correctly stated.

It should be noted that while the DfT’s intentions are to avoid placing unnecessary administrative burdens on organisations, officers of DfT or the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) will periodically visit organisations to check that claims comply with the appropriate legislation and to ensure that accurate records are being kept in support of claims.

Conditions of eligibility

The following is a brief description of eligibility for community transport operators wishing to claim the grant for services operated in England and is for guidance only.

To qualify for the grant an organisation must first hold a section 19 permit and be able to produce evidence, such as a copy of its constitution or annual report, showing that it provides transport services in the eligible categories.

To qualify for the grant, community transport services must be eligible services operated by non-profit-making bodies on the basis of a permit issued under section 19 of the Transport Act 1985.

Eligible services are those used wholly or mainly by:

• persons who are 60 years old or above
• disabled persons (a person who has a physical or mental impairment that has substantial long-term adverse effects on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities)
• persons in receipt of Income Support under section 124 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992
• persons in receipt of Universal Credit under part 1 of the Welfare Reform Act 2012
• persons in receipt of Jobseekers Allowance under the Jobseekers Act 1995
• persons in receipt of Employment and Support Allowance payable under Part 1 of the Welfare Reform Act 2007
• persons suffering a degree of social exclusion by virtue of unemployment, poverty or other economic factors, homelessness, geographical remoteness, ill health or religious or cultural mores
• persons who believe that it would be unsafe for them to use any public passenger transport services
• carers or persons under 16 years of age accompanying any of the above

BSOG rates

The current rate of BSOG is:

Fuel type	Unit payable	BSOG rate from 1 January 2014
Diesel	Pence per litre	34.57
Biodiesel	Pence per litre	34.57
Bioethanol	Pence per litre	34.57
Biofuels – used cooking oil	Pence per litre	34.57
Unleaded petrol	Pence per litre	32.66
Natural gas used as road fuel	Pence per kilogram	18.88
Road fuel gas other than natural gas	Pence per kilogram	18.88

Claims from 1 July 2023

For claims from 1 July 2023 to 31 March 2025, a 60% uplift will be applied to BSOG claims from Community Transport Operators operating services under a section 19 permit.

For diesel, the payment rate will increase from 35 pence per litre to 56 pence per litre, so for every £1 claimed, operators will now receive £1.60.

Operators do not need to apply for the uplift. It will be applied automatically.

Notes

DfT no longer pays BSOG for the following categories of services:

• services operated under franchise to Transport for London
• community transport (s19) services operated in-house by English local authorities
• various specialist services
• services supported under tender by English local authorities, except incentives for smartcard, automatic vehicle location, low carbon emission vehicles and/or zero emission vehicles
• commercial services operated within the Transport for Greater Manchester boundary, except incentives for smartcard, automatic vehicle location, low carbon emission vehicles and/or zero emission vehicles

Incentives

Smartcard and AVL incentives

Operators may receive an 8% increase in their BSOG rate for vehicles that have operational smartcard systems installed and a further 2% increase for vehicles that are fitted with automatic vehicle location equipment.

Low carbon emission bus (LCEB) incentive

Operators of vehicles that hold a low carbon emission certificate may be eligible for an additional 6 pence per kilometre for those vehicles.

A low carbon emission vehicle must have 22 or more seats and be able to achieve a 30% reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions compared to an average Euro 3 diesel bus of the same passenger capacity.

Zero emission bus (ZEB) incentive

Claims from 1 April 2023

Operators that run a service under a section 19 or section 22 licence and use vehicles weighing up to 5 tonnes are now entitled to claim a ZEB incentive on that service without requiring a ZEB certificate or summary sheet.

If operators wish to claim under this exemption, they must:

• supply a copy of the vehicle log book (V5C) demonstrating the vehicle has zero tailpipe emissions
• self-certify that the vehicle has no other internal combustion engine on board

This can be done by email that accompanies the claim.

Operators of vehicles that hold a zero emission bus certificate may be eligible for a 22 pence per kilometre rate of BSOG for those vehicles.

Eligible buses must:

• meet the normal BSOG rules
• demonstrate zero tailpipe emissions
• have no internal combustion engine (for example, electric and hydrogen buses)

This will need to be verified by certification, which builds on the existing testing and certification process for the LCEB incentive.

Vehicles for which operators receive the ZEB incentive are not eligible for any other incentives.

Operators who believe they are entitled to any of these incentives should request the forms from bsog@dft.gov.uk.

Claim years

Operators are given the choice of claiming on either a 6-monthly basis (April to September and October to March) or an annual basis (either April to March or October to September). Depending on when the Section 19 permits were registered, your first claim may not be for a full 6 or 12 months.