Education and Inspections Bill

moved Amendment No. 209A: Page 53, line 21, after ““England”” insert ““, jointly with the relevant local transport authority or authorities,”” The noble Baroness said: In moving Amendment No. 209A I shall speak also to AmendmentsNos. 210A and 210B. We have moved on to the rather more mundane topic of home-school transport, but it is nevertheless very important. On the whole there has been support for the moves made by the Government both in this Bill and previously towards modernising the framework for home-school transport. Many noble Lords who have been active in local authorities struggled with the provisions of an Act which was50 years out of date and thus not fit for purpose. However, my amendments seek to probe the issue of transport strategy planning. Clause 69 places a new duty on local education authorities to promote sustainable travel modes and to produce a school travel strategy, an annual review of travel needs and a risk assessment. Transport strategy planning is currently the duty of local transport authorities under the terms of the Transport Act 2000. That Act makes specific reference to education and social services transport provision as well as to local bus services. Bringing it all together like that has proved very useful to local authorities in recent years in co-ordinating strategy and expenditure on buses across the piece. They have improved efficiency enormously and saved money. Local authorities are nervous that this integrated approach will be lost by having two separate sets of plans, one drawn up by the local transport authority and the other drawn up by the local education authority. Perhaps the Minister will comment on whether there is a need to look again at a more explicit link between the duties of the two bodies. The law of unintended consequences does not have a statutory basis, but it exists nevertheless. Let me refer to a small technical point in relation to the bus operators’ service grant which demonstrates this. I understand from the Bill that school transport is to be taken out of the remit of the traffic commissioner—which I am sure is a good thing—but that will have the effect of disqualifying school buses from the bus operators’ service grant. Currently, in rural areas particularly, outside school times, school buses are used to provide other local transport services and receive the grant. This keeps the cost of school transport down because there is, in effect, a cross subsidy. Therefore one unintended consequence of the provision could be to increase the cost of school transport. I recognise that this point goes beyond the technical and into anorak—and I would understand if the Minister had to write to me on it—but it is a point worth looking at because it could potentially be quite expensive. If local education authorities are to provide these new strategies and reviews, there clearly will be a cost. I should like some assurance from the Minister on how the discussions with authorities are going in relation to where the money for this is to come from. Finally, we have had debates about not putting extra burdens on anyone, particularly local authorities. Can the Minister be absolutely sure that the effect he requires could not have been achieved through working with colleagues in the Department for Transport on the local transport plans which are already up and running? Why has it been necessary to create a new set of plans and burdens? This seems to be going against the grain of everything we seek to achieve collectively. I beg to move.