Local Transport Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 77: 77: After Clause 66, insert the following new Clause— ““Power to require display of certain information (1) The appropriate national authority may make regulations requiring prescribed persons, or persons of a prescribed description, to display, in such place or places and in such manner as may be prescribed, information falling within subsection (2). (2) The information referred to in subsection (1) is prescribed information, or information of a prescribed description, relating to persons or bodies with functions relating to public passenger transport services. (3) Regulations under this section may provide that a traffic commissioner may impose a financial penalty on any operator of a public service vehicle who, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with a requirement imposed on the operator by regulations under this section. (4) Regulations made by virtue of subsection (3) may— (a) specify the maximum penalty that may be imposed by virtue of that subsection; (b) require a traffic commissioner who has imposed a penalty by virtue of that subsection to give notice in writing to such persons as may be prescribed. (5) A penalty imposed by virtue of subsection (3) is— (a) payable to the appropriate national authority that made the regulations, and (b) recoverable as a civil debt. (6) An operator on whom a penalty is imposed by virtue of subsection (3) may appeal to the Transport Tribunal against the imposition of the penalty. As respects appeals to the Transport Tribunal, see Schedule 4 to the TA 1985. (7) The power to make regulations under this section is exercisable by statutory instrument. (8) A statutory instrument containing regulations under this section is subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament. (9) In this section— ““the appropriate national authority”” means— (a) in relation to public passenger transport services operating wholly or partly in England, the Secretary of State; (b) in relation to public passenger transport services operating wholly or partly in Wales, the Welsh Ministers; ““prescribed”” means prescribed in regulations; ““public passenger transport services”” has the meaning given by section 63(10)(a) of the TA 1985; ““public service vehicle”” and ““traffic commissioner”” have the same meaning as in the PPVA 1981.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendment No. 78. In Committee, the noble Lords, Lord Low and Lord Berkeley, tabled amendments which would have placed an obligation on passenger transport operators to display information about public transport users committees. The amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Low, focused on the need for the presentation and location of such notices to take the needs of disabled people into account. At the time that we debated these amendments I explained that, although we agreed with the principle and intention behind them we wanted to consider them further, and I promised to come back at this stage with a suggestion on how to achieve his objective. We agree that it might be appropriate to require such information to be visible, so that, for example, passengers know who they can contact if they have a complaint about the service that they have received, or where to take that complaint further if they feel it has not been properly addressed. As noble Lords are aware, we are consulting on a new bus passenger champion. In drafting this clause, we have been mindful that the legislation should not be tied to any of the options, as it would be redundant if that option were taken out. Furthermore, this objective has merits in itself aside from the statutory passenger representative body that may be set up, so we want to ensure that the powers can be used even if it is decided that no such body is needed. Therefore, this amendment has been drawn up with sufficient flexibility to accommodate a range of different outcomes to the consultation. It would provide for the detail of the information requirements to be prescribed in secondary legislation, and that will give the right flexibility. This provision would also extend to Wales, although it would be for Welsh Ministers to make the regulations to apply there. We have defined the power to make regulations in such a way as to provide that, for services which operate between England and Wales, there could be a requirement to display information relevant to passengers in whichever area they travel. The power would also enable the regulations to empower a traffic commissioner to impose a financial penalty on any operator who without reasonable excuse failed to comply with the requirement. Such an operator would have a right of appeal to the Transport Tribunal against a decision to impose a penalty. The second new clause in this group of amendments is supplementary and would clarify the powers of the Transport Tribunal in relation to appeals under the main clause. It would also clarify those powers in the case of appeals against sanctions imposed by the traffic commissioners under Section 155 of the Transport Act 2000, as proposed to be amended by Clause 56 of this Bill. I apologise for the slightly technical long-windedness of that explanation, but we have probably met the aspirations of noble Lords and I look forward to their welcome for the amendments. I beg to move.