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Concessionary Bus Travel Bill [HL]

I rise to support these amendments and to speak to Amendment No. 22 in the group, which is similar in intent. Indeed, many of the arguments I shall put forward have already been made by the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, and therefore I shall keep my remarks to the minimum. It would not be incorrect to say that this entire scheme is dependent for its success on effective co-operation and administration by local authorities. I fully support that objective and it is a welcome move on the part of a Government who for too long have been unable or unwilling to trust local government to do this. I shall speak on that issue in more detail later. I feel strongly that this scheme should be administered by local authorities and it is therefore vital that we all recognise the important role they have to play in delivering it. However, there must be national funding to ensure its success. The mechanism for the actual delivery of the scheme has not been determined. As the noble Baroness has just made clear, if it is to be made through the block grant, that might not be as satisfactory as it should be. Whatever arrangement is settled on, the key principle must be that local councils are fully funded and suffer no financial risk. We have talked about the concessionary and other elements that local authorities might take on, which is up to them. As everyone is aware, local government is under severe cost pressures in the form of adult social care provision, waste and so forth. Local authorities want to support this scheme and the Government have said they want them to do that, and therefore we must find the funding nationally to support the provisions that come out of this legislation. I am not normally in favour of specific grants. Generally I prefer local authorities to be able to decide on their spending, but this might be an exception. I think the Government recognise that there may also be capital costs in setting up the scheme initially. Given that, will the Minister explain how he sees this being provided for? That is why we have tabled subsection (2) of the proposed new clause. Effectively it would allow local authorities to claim back any expenses they incur in setting up the scheme during its first year of operation. I shall be interested to hear the Minister’s response explaining the work being done in this area. I beg to move.