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Concessionary Bus Travel Bill [HL]

Two hundred and ninety-one is the number of travel concession authorities outside London. They will not all be negotiating units. The Government take pride in local authorities and we recognise the value of their work in this aspect of transport policy. However, a national scheme introduces a much more challenging dimension than that which has obtained in the past, but as the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, has said, local authorities make sure that in all sorts of ways they come together and authorise someone to do the work on their behalf when it comes to negotiations with big providers. We know also that the moment the scheme comes in, someone will travel from Brighton to Berwick for free by using their bus concession. They will get into the Guinness book of records as the first person to do it. Someone else will then do it faster and earn their own place in the record book. But a bus is not a coach, which does not stop as frequently as a bus, and in essence this is a scheme for local services. So of course it is right for us to say that local services ought to be negotiated by the local authority concerned. All we are doing with regard to this provision in the Bill is not abrogating that position; far from it—that is not the basis on which we are doing this. However, it is a power we require in case things go wrong. There would be no point in introducing the Bill if it were not for the fact that the scheme itself is universally considered an asset to the nation.