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Concessionary Bus Travel Bill [HL]

—to move towards a smartcard system once the technical problems have been ironed out? I have been told today—I did not know this before—that a good time to do this would be 2010 because that is when the present London freedom passes, of which I have two examples with me, expire. At that point it will be necessary to replace all the current London smartcards, which constitute a high proportion of the passes issued in England as a whole. Without the introduction of this new technology, not only will it prove difficult to abolish the bus service operators’ grant, it will also be difficult to reimburse local transport authorities fairly and accurately what they spend on subsidising bus travel. Although she is currently detained because her mother is unwell, that is a subject to which my noble friend Lady Scott of Needham Market will return because there is a problem with the present system in that money is distributed through the block grant to local transport authorities in a rather crude fashion. Some have enough money; some have too much, but we do not hear from them; some have too little, and from them we hear a lot. That is the way with any form of grant distribution, but I am moving this series of amendments because I really want to hear about the Government’s intentions and we can return to this subject once I have heard from the Minister. I beg to move.