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Concessionary Bus Travel Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 35: 35: Clause 9, page 6, line 34, leave out subsection (1) The noble Lord said: Clause 9 will, among other things, allow the Secretary of State actively to centralise the operation of the scheme, including reimbursement and/or other administrative functions of English travel concession authorities under Sections 145 to 150 of the Transport Act 2000. I have tabled the amendment as I am keen to probe the reason why the Government feel the need to keep such a power, albeit in reserve, in the Bill. I would also be grateful if the Minister could explain in what circumstances the Secretary of State would consider using such a power to take over the running of a national concessionary scheme. This will be a national scheme, but the Government’s White Paper and all three national parties have said that we need to do things more locally rather than centrally. To nationalise this sort of thing at the moment would go totally against the grain of our attempts to make things happen more locally. We have talked about the problems of finance and I am sure that those might be resolved, so I see no need at all for the Secretary of State to take these powers, which are totally contrary to all the things that all three parties across both Houses of Parliament are trying to do at the moment. I hope that the Minister will be able to explain why we need this reserve power. I beg to move.