Clause 2
Concessionary Bus Travel Bill [Lords]
12:00 pm
Gillian Merron (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Lincoln, Labour)
Although it is true that there are no eligible services on the Isles of Scilly, the addition, in subsection (3), of the Council of the Isles of Scilly as a travel concession authority will require the council to issue passes to their residents for use on the mainland, under new section 145A(4). That will ensure that elderly and disabled residents of the Isles of Scilly can, on production of their passes, like everybody else, travel for free on off-peak local bus services anywhere in England. The Council of the Isles of Scilly is at liberty to make arrangements with a mainland council, such as Cornwall county council, to issue passes to residents on its behalf. It might be worth pointing out that we will deal with issues concerning the Isles of Scilly when we come on to amendments Nos. 3, 4 and 5 and new clause 1.
The hon. Member for Wimbledon raised questions about the Isles of Scilly. The amount that they would get will depend on the basis of distribution, which is not yet finalised. We will be consulting on that and, indeed, later in our proceedings, we will discuss funding arrangements.