Clause 5 - Joint transport authorities
Transport (Wales) Bill
12:00 pm
Nick Ainger (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Office of the Secretary of State for Wales; Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, Labour)
No. Amendment No. 5 would remove the requirement that local authority members form the majority on any joint transport authority. Having had a similar exchange on Second Reading, I accept that that is not the hon. Gentleman’s intention, although it is what the amendment would achieve. Clause 5(5) was added to the Bill following the pre-legislative scrutiny to recognise explicitly the clear need to retain democratic accountability if a JTA is set up. We discussed that point on Second Reading. Without subsection (5), the Assembly would be able to use the power in subsection (4)(a) to provide for the Assembly to appoint all the members of a JTA if it so wished. Subsection (5), however, requires that where there is provision for appointment of members by someone other than a local authority, there must be a majority of local authority members. The purpose is to ensure that at all times on a JTA there will be a majority of local authority members. Of course, representatives of business, voluntary organisations and pensioner groups may be represented on the JTA.
Subsection (5) would not be applicable only when the subsection (4)(a) power was used to provide for all the members of a JTA to be appointed by the local authority. There is a guarantee that either more than half or all the members of a JTA are local authority members. Bearing in mind the comments made by members of the Committee about ensuring that there is good involvement from the business sector, transport providers and the voluntary sector, I hope that JTAs will be set up with a majority of local authority members, but with representatives of other organisations that have a clear involvement in transport policy.