Transport (Wales) Bill

moved Amendment No. 16:"Page 5, line 39, at end insert—" ““(   )   There shall be a sub-committee with responsibility for transport for elderly and disabled people.”” The noble Lord said: This is a probing amendment designed to inquire into the formation of a sub-committee under the Public Transport Users’ Committee for Wales, dedicated to elderly and disabled people. It would be an appropriate concession for the Government to give in view of our current involvement with the Bill establishing a commissioner for the elderly in Wales. Such a body would be similar to the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee, which advises the Department for Transport and the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland, which advises the Scottish Assembly. As the National Assembly for Wales takes over responsibility for our transport network in Wales, it, too, should have a body set up to ensure that disabled people and organisations representing them have access to the decision-making process. The proven usefulness of having a designated committee to give advice to the Department for Transport and the Scottish Executive should encourage replication in Wales. Amendment No. 17 in this group restricts the enormous latitude that the Bill gives to the potential powers that the Public Transport Users’ Committee will be able to wield in pursuit of the transport strategy. The subsection referred to in that amendment currently allows the committee to do almost anything. We are familiar with such a ““do anything”” clause, but it is not as common when it applies to a committee of this kind. This point has also been noted by the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee. It said that the Assembly may define the Public Transport Users’ Committee’s functions in any way it so chooses and that the committee may do anything to fulfil those functions. There is no specific limit to the membership, size or functions or the committee in the Bill. I have noted the Government’s response to the Delegated Powers Committee, but the situation is still barely acceptable. After all, we are empowering the Assembly to establish a committee by order and before the details of its composition, membership and functions have been worked out. I am bound to say that the Government’s reply to the Delegated Powers Committee makes curious reading here and there. For example, in relation to Clause 9, it states on page 54, at paragraph 35:"““The Assembly is to have the power, by order, to modify the functions of the Committee including the power to confer further functions on it or to remove functions from it””." Paragraph 36 states:"““The powers in question are needed in order to avoid having to seek provision by further primary legislation if, in the future, it is felt by the Assembly that it would be desirable to develop the functions of the Committee, perhaps in tandem with development of the functions of the Assembly itself, in ways which cannot, at the moment, be foreseen””." I am in a curious position when I am legislating for the unforeseen. Normally, legislation seeks to deal with the situation as we know it, rather than as we do not know it. I beg to move.