Stephen Hammond (Shadow Minister, Transport; Wimbledon, Conservative)

I want to discuss amendments Nos. 53 and 54. The clause deals with the consultation document to be issued by the local authority that wants to implement a quality contracts scheme. Previously, as governed by the Transport Act 2000, such local authorities were required to issue a notice of the proposed scheme in at least one newspaper in the relevant area. The notice would describe the proposed scheme, state where a copy of it may be inspected and the reasons for wishing to make it. The authorities were then required to consult various people.

The Local Transport Bill slightly amends such requirements inasmuch as it states that the authority must now supply a consultation document to the same list of people as mentioned in the relevant section of the 2000 Act. That will have the effect of making the process in some ways more formal and defined, and certain things must therefore be included in the consultation document. My amendments would address those small, yet important, points in relation to the consultation process.

The local authority is required to publish the consultation document

“in such a matter as they think fit”.

Amendment No. 53 would remove those words, which I believe are unnecessary. The word “publish” is hardly open to misinterpretation, and surely it must mean to produce such information in either printed or electronic form. Given that the following subsections under the clause prescribe quite tightly what must be included in the consultation document, it is unlikely that an authority would be in a position to get it wrong or, indeed, to do anything other than in the manner that is prescribed, not

“in such a manner as they think fit”.

The amendment is really a tidying up proposal, and is saying that, given the high level of prescription and that we know the meaning of “publish”, the phrase to which I have referred is unnecessary.

Amendment No. 54 is important and says that the 2000 Act already sets out a list of those who need to be consulted as a result of the documentation being produced, which includes operators, other local authorities that might be affected, the traffic commissioner, the chief of police and, of course, includes the ubiquitous phrase “think fit”, which relates to other persons. The amendment is simple. Given that those people are prescribed, it would be important to prescribe in the Bill several others who must have the document. The chief fire officer, the head of the local ambulance service and people who live within 150 m of the relevant route as well as representatives of local groups for the disabled are all people who, for the sake of completeness, should be included in the consultation procedure. We have gone through the argument several times about such persons as an authority sees fit, but it is always more helpful to describe such people in the Bill. I hope that the Minister will accept amendments Nos. 53 and 54, which are minor proposals.

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