Bus bosses have defended the virtues of CCTV cameras on public transport.

The stance - by the head of Keighley & District Travel's parent company - follows a Home Office study which shed doubt on the effectiveness of on-board cameras.

Giles Fearnley, chairman of Blazefield Holdings Ltd, said the CCTV equipment - now fitted as standard to every new K&DT vehicle - had many benefits.

He said: "While we are not in a position to say if this actually reduces crime rates, we can be confident from our experiences that the level of safety perceived by both our staff and our customers is raised.

"Also, on-bus anti-social behaviour is normally much lower and the detection and recording of both on and off-bus incidents - leading to police prosecutions - is greatly increased.

"To date we have invested some £500,000 in this equipment, which is now fitted to approximately 40 per cent of our bus fleet."

The Home Office study claimed that crime rates had fallen in just two of the CCTV schemes surveyed.

Blazefield said that the visual evidence obtained by the cameras was highly acceptable to courts and was used by the police to successfully prosecute following road traffic accidents, kerbside robberies and attacks on bus drivers.

CCTV was also used in educational programmes.