Clause 57
Local Transport Bill [Lords]
5:45 pm
Rosie Winterton (Minister of State, Department for Transport; Doncaster Central, Labour)
As the hon. Gentleman said, the amendments would, in effect, negate the purpose of clause 57, which is to extend the powers of traffic commissioners to take enforcement action against operators who fail to provide services of a satisfactory standard. It is the first of three clauses that will give traffic commissioners new or enhanced powers.
At present, traffic commissioners have at their disposal several powers that they can use to take action against operators who are not delivering a reliable service, who are not delivering the services that they said they would deliver, or who are using vehicles that do not meet the necessary safety standards. One of those powers is that the traffic commissioner can attach conditions to an operator’s licence. The conditions can be used to prevent the operator from providing certain services, and can even go so far as to prohibit an operator from operating any bus services at all in a particular area.
That is an effective tool, but there are several difficulties with it. When we debated part 1 of the Bill, I referred to the fact that Great Britain is divided into eight traffic areas. When an operator applies for a public service vehicle operator’s licence, he must apply to the traffic commissioner for the traffic area in which the vehicles are based. Those vehicles may then be used anywhere in Great Britain. But a large operator with vehicles based in more than one traffic area will have separate licences for different traffic areas.
Under the current legislation, it is generally accepted that there is no power for a traffic commissioner to attach conditions to a licence held by an operator in another traffic area. This means that even if conditions are imposed, an operator can continue to provide services under a licence held in a different traffic area unless and until the appropriate traffic commissioner takes action against him.
There is also no power for a traffic commissioner to prevent operators from circumventing the effect of licence conditions by transferring the operation of services to a subsidiary of the same holding group of companies. Such potential loopholes weaken the powers of the traffic commissioner to take action if operators are failing.
The clause will give traffic commissioners the option, where conditions have been attached to an operator’s licence, to direct a traffic commissioner in a different traffic area to attach conditions to other licences held by the company. The other traffic commissioner could refuse only if there were good reason to do so.
The clause will also give traffic commissioners powers to attach conditions to licences held by operators connected with the original, defaulting operator, such as subsidiaries of the same holding company. I hope that the Committee will agree that it is only right that a bus operator should not be able to use the current limitations on the imposition of conditions on licences to circumvent enforcement action and, by doing so, to continue to operate bad services. That is exactly why clause 57 is in the Bill.
The hon. Gentleman’s amendments would undo those important changes, leaving operators the opportunity to continue to circumvent enforcement action. Moreover, amendments Nos. 245 and 246 would go even further, watering down existing powers so that traffic commissioners would no longer be able to impose a licence condition preventing a licence holder from operating any services in a particular area. Because the group of amendments would undermine the whole purpose of clause 57 and leave traffic commissioners with even weaker enforcement powers than they have at the moment, I cannot accept them, and I urge the Committee to reject them. With that explanation, I hope that the hon. Gentleman will withdraw them.