Accredited Official Statistics Status of Bus Statistics
Updated 26 November 2025
Applies to England, Scotland and Wales
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Accredited Official Statistics status
Accredited Official Statistics status means that our statistics meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value, and it is our responsibility to maintain compliance with these standards.
Quarterly and annual bus statistics were designated as Accredited Official Statistics in June 2012. The continued designation of these statistics as Accredited Official Statistics was confirmed in February 2013 following a full assessment against the Code of Practice by the Office for Statistics Regulation.
Changes to these statistics
Since the latest review by the Office for Statistics Regulation, we have continued to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics, and have made the following improvements:
- added value by including more contextual commentary
- improved accessibility of the statistics through use of infographics and addition of a factsheet
- added value by including links to other sources of bus data
2024 publication
The data processing and imputation process for these statistics was transferred onto a modern system. During this transfer, several small improvements were made to the methodology, such as:
- improving data matching when national averages are used
- formalising the scaling process used to keep estimates reasonable during the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery
- ensuring all available data was being used when estimating a value
2025 publication
Table BUS03 was fully revised back to 2005. These figures cover passenger miles and average bus occupancy, which are primarily used to compare bus usage with other modes of transport.
A new service type has been added to the local bus mileage statistics, which can be seen in table BUS02. Publicly controlled services covers those regulated under franchising or similar schemes, starting with covering London and Greater Manchester.