Local Transport Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 61: 61: Schedule 2, page 90, line 30, at end insert— ““(4) After sub-paragraph (3)(c) insert— ““(d) securing improvements in the quality, capacity, usability or variety of transport provision within the area of the authority of benefit to actual or potential transport users within the area generally or to certain categories of actual or potential transport users within the area, in accordance with the authority’s local transport policies.””.”” The noble Lord said: The Bill sets out a competition test for quality partnership schemes and for voluntary partnership agreements. That test, which is as I understand it an amended version of what is described as Schedule 10 to the Transport Act 2000, applies in place of the general provisions of the appropriate chapter, which I think is Section 1 of the Competition Act. Schedule 10 means that, where the advantages of partnership arrangements, such as benefits to passengers, reduced traffic congestion or improvements to facilities or vehicles outweigh the disadvantages of reduced competition, those arrangements are judged to have passed the competition test. A specific competition test, if that is the appropriate phraseology, for the bus sector is preferable to the application of the general competition law and is likely to act as less of a deterrent to co-operation between operators and local transport authorities for the benefit of passengers. The amendments would broaden the scope of the benefits of voluntary and statutory quality partnership schemes in that Schedule 10 competition test and refer to, "““securing improvements in the quality, capacity, usability or variety of transport provision within the area of the authority of benefit to actual or potential transport users””." What is in here is rather broader than the terminology that appears to be in the amended version of the Schedule 10 competition test, and it is more appropriate to be able to take into account those rather wider considerations that might be deemed to outweigh the disadvantages of reduced competition. I beg to move.