---

Concessionary Bus Travel Bill [HL]

I apologise to the Committee that I have been coming in and out but the Committee on the Mental Health Bill is taking place simultaneously. I took part in the pre-legislative scrutiny of that Bill and so I will be coming in and out of this Committee. It may seem odd that I, who live and work in Wales, would take part in a Bill that affected England but I was asked by Help the Aged to table the amendment in my name. I agreed to do so because of the patient population that I know of only too well who cannot access bus travel. We should not underestimate such people, particularly those who are older, who have bone disease, whose balance is perhaps not always what it could be and who cannot travel on buses. Some of these patients have tried to do so but have fallen and sustained fractures. I know of such cases personally. As my noble friend Lord Low has said, in areas where there are flexible concessions, they are well taken up, are extremely popular and are certainly not abused. In many areas there are flexible concessions but the individual also has to top them up in order to travel a further distance. Those are also very popular because they allow people to get out of the isolation of lonely living, where they see nothing but the four walls in which they live—day in, day out. It is incredibly important for the health and welfare of our population that they remain as mobile as possible. In some parts of the country there are no reasonable bus services for such people to access. The principle of the amendment in my name is not to make the Government do anything at this stage but simply to give the Secretary of State powers that he can use in future, if he so wishes. I hope that the Minister will not turn his back on putting such increased powers on the face of the Bill. They would allow the Secretary of State to put pressure on local authorities to look at flexible concessions and to introduce imaginative schemes in their locality. For those that do not, the Secretary of State would ultimately be able to wield a stick, rather than simply a carrot, in trying to persuade them. It is vital that in a Bill as important as this for maintaining mobility in the population we do not ignore the very people whose mobility and mental health are under greatest threat by allowing them to remain isolated because they are too old or too disabled to fall within the provisions of the Bill and able to use it in a practical way.