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Local Transport Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 71A: 71A: Clause 64, page 55, line 19, at end insert— ““(12) The Public Transport Users’ Committee for England shall make recommendations to the senior traffic commissioner on appropriate national minimum standards for bus services. (13) The Secretary of State, the senior traffic commissioner and transport authorities shall have regard to the recommendations of the Public Transport Users’ Committee for England.”” The noble Lord said: I suppose that this is a fairly obvious amendment. If we have a Public Transport Users Committee for England, which I hope we do, the amendment sets out a requirement for it to, "““make recommendations to the senior traffic commissioner on appropriate national minimum standards for bus services””." And it requires the Secretary of State to take these into account. I again use the railway to make a comparison: one of the real success stories of Passenger Focus has been the fact that before it offers public opinions on various things and tells Ministers what they or other people should be doing, it collects evidence in a proper systematic way and publishes it. It makes its recommendations on the basis of that evidence. I am sure that the Minister will agree that that is a much better way of going forward. It would be very useful if that process—and, I hope, with the same organisation expanded—could be used to collect evidence and form opinions about the operation of buses, to have a statutory right to make the recommendations to the traffic commissioners and for the Secretary of State to take them into account. I beg to move.