Clause 2
Local Transport Bill [Lords]
11:30 am
Rosie Winterton (Minister of State, Department for Transport; Doncaster Central, Labour)
The amendment would require the Secretary of State to consult the senior traffic commissioner and such representatives of local government as the Secretary of State thinks fit when appointing traffic commissioners. I have listened carefully to Opposition Members, but I do not think the requirement that their amendment would impose would sit well with the independence of traffic commissioners.
It is one of the great strengths of traffic commissioners that they have independence from other stakeholders—Government, local authorities and the bus and lorry industries. The decisions that they reach when exercising their statutory functions are based purely on the circumstances of the individual case, as the law requires, and the Government believe it important, in the light of all the stakeholders who may be involved in the decisions that they take, that their independence be preserved so that they can carry out their functions without being seen to be beholden to any stakeholder.