---

National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) (Transport) Order 2010

My Lords, that was another excellent explanatory speech from the noble Lord. I am glad that it is the last of these LCOs; they seem to have gone on and on, but we have had good times as well, and I am sure that it is all in a good cause. This draft LCO makes provision to confer legislative competence on the Welsh Assembly in the field of transport by inserting matters relating to school transport and concessionary bus and rail travel. There has been considerable pressure in south Wales for improvements to safety standards in school buses since the unfortunate death over seven years ago of Stuart Cunningham-Jones in the Vale of Glamorgan. Safety standards on school buses should be the highest possible and, if legislation comes forward which achieves that, it will certainly be welcomed by all. Indeed, this cannot be said to be a Wales-only issue and it would be even more welcome if the Government had considered pursuing the issues addressed by this LCO on an England and Wales level. There will be some impact on the providers of school transport and, although no consultation has taken place before this LCO, extensive consultation will clearly have to take place with transport providers before any measure is produced pursuant to the competence transferred. So far as the question of concessionary transport is concerned, the Explanatory Memorandum indicates that the competence is sought to enable the Assembly to legislate to exercise more rigorous control of the scheme—for example, by allowing the Assembly Government to negotiate directly for the reimbursement of operating costs with operators, and to administer the scheme directly rather than through local authorities. The memorandum points out that the current mechanism of reimbursing operators via local authorities fails to build in sufficient incentives to control costs, since local authorities are reimbursed by the Assembly Government for the full cost concerned. Clearly that must be a significant problem if the Assembly Government seek legislative competence to address it. Can the Minister give any indication as to the extent to which the Assembly Government consider that local authorities are not sufficiently controlling costs? It is unfortunate that the Assembly Government seem to consider that the only solution to the problem is to centralise control over it. Paragraph 7.8 also points out that there is a potential conflict of interest in that, under the current range of executive powers, Welsh Ministers may negotiate reimbursement directly with local bus operators acting as the agents of local authorities, but are themselves the appeal authority in cases of dispute. What is envisaged to replace this procedure? Will there be, for example, a separate appeals panel, independent of Welsh Ministers? The memorandum also indicates that the competence of the Assembly will be limited in relation to concessionary travel by restricting competence over rail travel to Welsh services provided under a franchise agreement to which the Welsh Ministers are a party—to all intents and purposes, Arriva Trains Wales. Can the Minister indicate whether there is any possibility of extending the scheme to non-franchise companies in Wales—Virgin Trains, First Great Western and CrossCountry? If concessionary travel is confined to Arriva Trains, is there not a possibility that those services will be heavily overused? Finally, perhaps I may gently complain that there are omissions in certain parts of the Explanatory Memorandum. Paragraphs 7.4 and 7.8 are incomplete. That is a little regrettable, given that those paragraphs are important. I support the order and await the Minister’s response.