Clause 43
Local Transport Bill [Lords]
4:00 pm
Rosie Winterton (Minister of State, Department for Transport; Doncaster Central, Labour)
The clause will give traffic commissioners powers to determine whether applications to register new services, or to modify or withdraw existing ones, would be detrimental to a quality partnership scheme. That is linked to measures in clause 13, which would allow a local transport authority to include registration restrictions in a scheme. When making such decisions, the traffic commissioner must apply the registration criteria contained in the scheme. The clause sets out the procedure to be followed when an application to which such restrictions apply is received. If the traffic commissioner decides that an application would be detrimental to the quality partnership scheme, he may turn it down, he may require the applicant to amend it or he may require them to undertake that they would provide services to the standards specified in the scheme. The clause also provides a right of appeal to the Transport Tribunal against decisions of the traffic commissioner.
We included the provisions in response to concerns that a successful quality partnership scheme could be undermined by disruptive competition—by competitors not prepared to meet the standards specified in the scheme. The purpose is to protect operators and authorities that might have made significant investment in facilities or standards of service. The provisions also provide protection for the passengers who benefit from the improvements in service that a scheme should bring.
The amendment would prevent the traffic commissioner from making an assessment as to whether a registration application would be detrimental to services provided under a quality partnership scheme. He would instead be limited to basing his decision on the registration criteria and the representations and evidence put before him. He would obviously have to consider representations from operators and authorities as part of the decision-making process. Indeed, if no such representations are made, the legislation stipulates that he must accept the application.
We believe that the changes are necessary. It is important that the traffic commissioner should be able to make such assessments, as that will ensure that quality partnership schemes cannot be undermined in the ways that I outlined earlier. We included the provision for registration restrictions to help prevent destabilising competition—it is often seen in so-called bus wars—which can affect operators that have invested in quality partnership schemes and the passengers who need the services. We believe that limiting the assessment strictly to the relevant representations with authorities and operators would diminish the commissioner’s ability to make an informed decision. That is why I urge the hon. Member for Wimbledon to withdraw the amendment.