New Clause 10

Part of Local Transport Bill [ Lords ] – in a Public Bill Committee at 4:45 pm on 8 May 2008.

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Photo of Rosie Winterton Rosie Winterton Minister of State (Regional Affairs) (Yorkshire and the Humber), Minister of State (Department for Transport) 4:45, 8 May 2008

I hope that I can reassure my hon. Friend that we either already have, or are taking, all the powers that the new clause is intended to effect. The Transport Act 1985 already allows the Secretary of State to make regulations to require operators to provide certain data to traffic commissioners. The new powers in the Bill will enable traffic commissioners, first, to hold local authorities to account if they are having an impact on bus punctuality and, secondly, to impose sanctions on operators who fail to meet statutory requirements to provide bus punctuality data.

Those new powers will form part of the new bus punctuality regime, which we are working on with bus operators and local authorities through the Bus Partnership Forum. We believe that they will make a real difference.

I hope that those are sufficient reassurances to persuade my hon. Friend to withdraw the new clause.