The Competition Commission has published the provisional findings of its market investigation into the operation of local bus services. The report suggests that local markets are generally characterised by high levels of concentration at route and at local area levels. Often there is a lack of real competition in the market so that over time, there is only one surviving operator which is not necessarily exposed to ongoing discipline of competition following the exit of its rivals. The report also suggests that tendering for supported local bus services does not always result in the anticipated level of competition, partly because of the way in which the Local Transport Authorities design the tenders and partly because of the limited number of bidders in local areas.