Clause 2 - Piloting of new provisions
School Transport Bill
2:30 pm
Ms Charlotte Atkins (Assistant Whip (funded by HM Treasury); Staffordshire Moorlands, Labour)
I do not know about the costs involved at present, but I am sure that we can provide the hon. Gentleman with such information. We shall certainly be examining the pilot provisions in various local authorities and I am sure that we can draw up some cost implications. The whole three-for-two allowance is very much a matter for the LEA. Indeed, the allowance is withering, not growing.
Let us consider the alternatives to the three-for-two allowance. If there were not enough seats, we could allow young children to stand on the bus to the limit of the standing capacity of that bus or to leave them at the bus stop. Standing passengers are more vulnerable to injury when a vehicle is both accelerating and braking, as well as if there were an accident. If we left children stranded at the bus stop, whether or not in an isolated area, they could be subject to other dangers and would miss out on one of the safest ways in which to travel to school—on the bus.
The three-for-two allowance should be used only as a fail-safe mechanism. No one is suggesting that it should be used as a planned overcrowding measure. The sad accident that occurred in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Monmouth was not the fault of overcrowding, but it gave rise to concern among parents about the three-for-two allowance. Ultimately, it is the LEA that has to decide about the three-for-two rule.