Buses (Deregulation)

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Blackley (Graham Stringer) on securing the debate. Not only has he got me back on the subject of buses, but this is my first Westminster Hall debate, although we are not in Westminster Hall but in Committee Room 10. I am delighted that that is the subject of the debate, because one of my personal projects at the last election was to work with my passenger transport executive, Merseytravel, to secure a form of re-regulation. If I were to quibble about anything about today's debate, it would be the name. Instead of ““Buses (Deregulation)””, it should be ““Buses (Re-regulation)””. I would have much preferred a positive slant on the debate. Why is it that three of my constituents from Upton recently contacted me to tell me that the 497 service from Saughall Massie to Birkenhead had been withdrawn by Arriva? That caused severe hardship to one elderly couple who cannot get to their doctor as they did before. They have to get two bus services, neither of which are particularly reliable. In September last year, constituents from West Kirby were very distressed when the 82 bus service, run by Avon buses, from Heswall to West Kirby was cut in half, making them wait for two hours on that circular route, which is mostly used by the elderly. In October last year, I heard about the number 17 bus service operated by FirstBus, which is regularly late and has led to problems because the gentleman involved cannot get to work properly. The background as regards Merseytravel and Merseyside has already been given by the hon. Member for Southport (Dr. Pugh), so I will not go into that. We receive letters regularly. In my naivety, when I first received letters about such matters, I used to write to the PTE to ask whether it could intervene and do something. It got fed up and said, ““Look, Stephen, no, we can't. We can't interfere with commercial services. We can't operate or try to operate those services.”” So what is to be done? I want to tread a middle course. I understand that there could almost be a revolution, which would unwind what happened in 1985. I do not think that anyone is arguing for that. My PTE tells me that, under the Transport Act 2000, reluctantly but as positively as it can, it wants to consider quality contracts. I shall pick up from where my hon. Friend the Member for Pudsey (Mr. Truswell) finished. My local PTE tells me that under—is it section 6? Everyone is looking at me mystified. Are we getting some information?