Local Transport Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 44: 44: Clause 40, page 34, leave out lines 38 to 42 and insert— ““( ) voluntary partnership agreements and certain other agreements, decisions and practices relating to bus services.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 45 to 63. The Bill provides for a new competition test that would apply to voluntary partnership agreements between local transport authorities and bus operators and to certain other supporting agreements. The test would apply in place of the provisions of Chapter 1 of Part 1 of the Competition Act 1998. The new test is designed to encourage these agreements by providing greater clarity to bus operators and a more proportionate enforcement regime. In debating this issue in Grand Committee, the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, tabled an amendment that would have broadened the scope of the test to cover any agreement involving bus operators, even without any local authority involvement. There are certainly circumstances where such agreements may be in the public interest and, in those circumstances, we would wish to encourage them. For example, two operators might wish to co-ordinate their timetables on a particular route to provide a regular service frequency throughout the day, which makes evident good sense. However, in seeking to create a more flexible framework for beneficial agreements of this kind, we need also to ensure we do not create a safe harbour for agreements that are not in the interests of passengers. Agreements that are inconsistent with the policies of a local transport authority would be one example, or agreements that seek to fix fares higher than they need to be. The amendments are designed to get this balance right. They would allow any agreement between bus operators to fall within the scope of the new competition test so long as the agreement has been endorsed and certified by the local transport authority and did not involve price fixing. By being subject to the new competition testing, Part 2 of Schedule 10 to the Transport Act 2000, agreements meeting this condition would not be at risk of financial penalty from the OFT. I know that that has been a concern. I consider that the amendments address the concerns raised by noble Lords in earlier debates while ensuring we do not create a safe harbour for agreements that undermine and do not provide direct benefits to passengers. I beg to move.