The Department for Transport has corrected a statement that wrongly said “over 14.5 million children used the bus for free this summer, thanks to the government’s Great British Summer Savings Scheme”, after Full Fact queried the claim.
The “over 14.5 million” figure, which the department said comes from the Confederation of Passenger Transport and participating operators, actually refers to the number of journeys, not the number of children. And there are estimated to be only about 7.5 million children in England aged 5-15 (the age group the offer was open to). The chief executive of the CPT even referred to this in a comment in the DfT’s statement.
The original statement was corrected after Full Fact got in touch to explain the problem. It now says: “Over 14.5 million free bus journeys were taken by children this summer.”
The error was repeated widely before it was corrected, however, with politicians and the media citing similar figures.
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The transport secretary, Heidi Alexander MP, told the Labour Party conference this week that there had been “free bus travel for kids this August, used by 14 million children”.
The Labour MP for Hyndburn, Sarah Smith, said on Instagram that “over 14.5 million children used the bus for free this summer”.
We’ve seen similar claims in a number of media outlets, with the Express this week reporting that 14 million children, or (also incorrectly) “14 million UK families”, used the scheme. And the figure has also been shared widely on social media.
Full Fact has approached Ms Alexander, Ms Smith and the Express for comment.