More on the Buses

This response gives a picture of the scale of abuse of Livingstones concessionary bus passes:

Andrew Pelling: How many free bus passes have been withdrawn from both the under 18 and under 16 age group categories and what proportion does each reason given take up as part of the whole?

Ken Livingstone: To date, 2,033 concessionary travel passes have been withdrawn from under 16s:

546 'transferred' - used by someone other than the registered concession holder.
61 expired.
1,039 altered or mutilated.
6 for breach of the behaviour code.
381 for other reasons - including expired passes or where the photo clearly does not match the user.

Of 16 / 17 concessionary passes, four have been withdrawn to date: 2 'transferred' and 2 for other reasons.

It's not a glowing record and almost certainly under estimates the level of abuse because:

Police officers and PCSOs are not empowered to withdraw the cards.
Data protection law has hampered information sharing between the police and TfL.
There is no mechanism to prevent someone obtaining another pass if there own is withdrawn.

Also note that breaches of the behaviour code are also included in the other categories - there have been more than 6 of these.