Concessionary Bus Travel Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 2: After Clause 1, insert the following new clause- ““ROLE OF THE COUNCIL Omit sections 2 to 5 of LSA 2000 (main duties and powers).”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, I join the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, in thanking the Minister for his characteristically full and helpful response. I, too, was a little disappointed at the timescale he signalled. His suggestion was that when the national concession had been in place for about a year, the stakeholders might take an initiative. Although I recognise that it will take some time to carry out a review of all the issues we have talked about and to meet the Minister’s points, I hope that it will be possible to start a little earlier. Perhaps it will be possible for the Minister and his department to take the initiative in calling the stakeholders together. I shall be happy to indicate to the Minister who the most prominent stakeholders might be; I have already mentioned a couple. The Minister has his work cut out for him in piloting this Bill through Parliament and getting the national concession extension in place. I obviously do not expect the Minister and his department to take any initiative tomorrow, but would hope that before a year was out, maybe in the next six to nine months, he might be able to call the stakeholders together to indicate the matters that need to be addressed. I am sure that the stakeholders are working on it as we speak. Taking that action so that stakeholders and officials can get down to tackling the issues jointly, and we do not have to wait for the extension to be in place for a whole year before tackling the ancillary issues, will be an extremely helpful move. I beg to move.