Clause 2 - Piloting of new provisions
School Transport Bill
11:15 am
Mr Huw Edwards (Monmouth, Labour)
Well, it is certainly policed by the parents of the children of Llandogo. The considerable representations that I made to my local authority meant that eventually the situation was changed. The hon. Gentleman raises an important point, because there was no sort of approval to check whether pupils who happened to sit on overcrowded buses were under 14. In many cases it is likely that there would have been one under-14 and a couple of over-14s sitting on the same double seat.
As parents point out, children are heavier than they were in 1944. They are bigger, and are more likely to carry more equipment to school. I saw pupils carrying their school bag—some of them were still carrying satchels—and a kit bag, trombone case or violin case. Many of them were standing, too; it was a horrendous situation. One could not imagine a school trip to Tintern abbey, which is in my constituency and is down the road from Llandogo, on which pupils were allowed to sit or stand on such a bus. There would have to be risk assessments, but no such assessments were made in the case that I mentioned.
There was no obligation on the Health and Safety Executive to look into the matter. I ask my hon. Friend the Minister to try to ensure, in the piloting of the new provisions, that a safeguard to ensure that the three-for-two rule is not implemented, and will not be taken advantage of by the commercial bus companies.
I had a mischievous thought when coming to Committee this morning. The prospectus, which I have only recently seen, says that there will be open evaluation of the pilots. I do not have the legal training that some of my hon. Friends have, but I am a social scientist, and am interested in evaluation, policy-related research and the ability to evaluate policy in order to improve it. I wondered there could be, as in a randomised control trial, one pilot in which we were insistent that the three-for-two rule would not be applied—say, a pilot in Burton that extended to near the River Trent—and another pilot that actually maximised the three-for-two rule. We could call that the Moorlands pilot; in that case, the bus would be allowed to carry an excessive number of children under the three-for-two rule. If those pilots were evaluated, I am sure that hon. Members and Ministers would think that the latter pilot was an appalling situation.