I thank noble Lords who have spoken on this group of amendments. An enhanced partnership scheme is designed to be developed collaboratively between bus operators and their local transport authority, a point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson. The scheme can, of course, be made only if the operators of local bus services in the area are generally on board with the proposal. Enhanced partnerships will be created in what remains a deregulated market. That is why bus operators affected by such a scheme will be able to voice their objections to the scheme at key points. The local authority can proceed with the proposals only if a sufficient number of operators do not object. “Sufficient number” will be defined in secondary legislation, but it is likely to be based on the number of operators and their market
share. We provided further information on our thinking in the policy scoping notes which were made available to noble Lords last month.
Amendment 87 would require all bus operators eligible to object to an enhanced partnership scheme to agree to any proposals that included requirements about: purchasing tickets or paying fares; publicising bus services, fares or ticketing; and the price of multi-operator tickets. If unanimous agreement could be reached by operators in the area, there is nothing to prevent these measures being introduced currently, but such agreement often cannot be reached. That is why the Bill seeks to prevent a potentially small minority view blocking important improvements to bus services.
I turn to Amendments 96, 98 and 109. The local bus operators that cast their vote are all private commercial companies, and each must determine what the effect of the proposals would be on its business. This is important because it is those operators that will end up paying for most, if not all, of the reforms. The amendments proposed by the noble Baroness would undermine their commercial freedom by giving the traffic commissioner a say in determining, on appeal from a local authority, whether an objection is unreasonable.
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I do not believe that such a role is appropriate for two reasons. First, the traffic commissioners’ primary function is to ensure that individual bus operators are meeting safety requirements. They also have a role in ensuring that local bus services are operated in accordance with the route and timetable that have been registered. Such decisions are based on questions of fact: for example, whether the buses are arriving at the stop on time. Traffic commissioners have little experience in determining a commercial matter such as whether it is reasonable for an operator to vote in a particular way. That will depend on each operator’s assessment of how the proposals would affect their individual businesses going forward. Traffic commissioners are not, in our view, well placed to make judgments on that. Secondly, the commissioners would not be accountable for their decisions. A decision that a particular operator has voted unreasonably may commit that operator to a huge financial burden going forward and that could, over time, put them out of business, potentially with significant impacts for passengers.
Finally, I turn to Amendments 97, 99 and 110. New Sections 138F and 138G allow the Secretary of State to make regulations on two matters. The first is what types of local bus service qualify their operators to make an objection. For example, an open-top sightseeing bus may be registered as a local service but may not really be a part of the wider bus network and so is not appropriate to include in this mechanism. The second power allows the Secretary of State to specify the objection criteria that would apply, and specifically what level of objections would be enough to stop the next stage of a plan or scheme.
The first and second amendments tabled by the noble Baroness would require the regulations covering these two matters to be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. This is already the case for making a scheme under the provisions amending Section 160
of the Transport Act 2000 that are included in Schedule 4 to the Bill. The noble Baroness’s third amendment provides that regulations under new Section 138M concerning procedures for variations to enhanced partnership plans and schemes are also to be subject to the affirmative procedure. They are currently subject to the negative procedure, as the impact of the power will be significantly less than that of the powers under sections that deal with the making of the scheme. This is because the plan and scheme may contain bespoke objection provisions, which would apply when they are varied or revoked. It is only in circumstances where no such bespoke provisions are included that the variation mechanism in the regulations would apply. In view of these considerations, we believe that the negative procedure for these regulations will afford an appropriate level of parliamentary scrutiny.
The noble Baroness made a specific point about the Explanatory Notes. I think there are also scoping notes, which might explain some of the detail, but I will look through that and of course write to the noble Baroness and all other noble Lords who participated in the debate today.
In summary, I believe that the Bill as drafted strikes the right balance between meeting the needs of bus passengers and safeguarding the legitimate commercial concerns of individual bus operators. We do not agree with the amendments, and I hope that the explanation I have given has provided some degree of insight into the Government’s thinking. Based on that, I hope the noble Earl is minded to withdraw his amendment, and other noble Lords not to press theirs.