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Concessionary Bus Travel Bill [HL]

I am grateful to both noble Lords for the extension of their arguments. I must say that I do not think that we can meet the objective of the noble Lord, Lord Low, of costings for particular categories of the disabled. We will look at how we can help. I am eager to be helpful because the noble Lord will recognise that we appreciate his point, but it may be difficult for us to achieve and I do not hold out too much hope to him in that respect. In broader terms, I think that I can do a bit more for the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield. If it is not enough, we will do more work for him before we reach Report. Our initial analysis is that the estimated annual cost of extending the statutory minimum to trams would be in the order of £15 million, to local rail—trains—about £250 million, and to community transport, at least £25 million. I think that the Committee will recognise that we have all sorts of difficulties with the definition of community transport and therefore the implicit cost. That is as far as I can go in being helpful at this stage.