Local Transport Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 79: 79: Clause 67, page 57, line 6, leave out ““9(1)(a)”” insert ““9(1)(a)(i)”” The noble Lord said: I shall try to be brief, and in moving the amendment, I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 80 to 108 and Amendments Nos. 122 to 125. The Bill places an overarching duty on what have previously been known as passenger transport authorities to develop policies for transport in their area and to produce a local transport plan. In other words, they will be responsible for transport strategy covering not only public transport, but all transport within their locality. They will have additional statutory powers as set out in Part 5. In recognition of this new, wider, set of responsibilities, we believe it would be sensible to rename PTAs as Integrated Transport Authorities—ITAs. At the same time, we would rename the area that an ITA covers—previously known as a passenger transport area—as an ““integrated transport area””. I am sure that it will come as no surprise to the House that there are many references to PTAs and passenger transport areas in current legislation, going back, as far as we can understand it, to the Transport Act 1968. Clause 67 provides that such references should now be read as if they refer to Integrated Transport Authorities and areas as regards England and Wales. I am told that it is good legislative practice to make the necessary changes, where possible, by way of textual amendment, in order to aid accessibility of the legislation in future. We believe that this is particularly important now that legislation is so often accessed through electronic means. Schedule 4 currently lists existing references to PTAs and passenger transport areas where these occur in various statutes coming forward from 1968 and relating to transport matters. We have now had an opportunity to identify more such references, and these amendments expand Schedule 4 to provide a comprehensive list of textual amendments to PTAs and passenger transport areas in all public Acts of Parliament. There is one proviso to this. While the new references to ITAs and ITA areas would apply to England and Wales, it is still necessary to retain existing references to PTAs in relevant legislation. This is simply because one PTA was set up in Scotland—in Strathclyde—which is not affected by this Bill. As a devolved matter, any legislative changes in Scotland to the Strathclyde PTA would be a matter for the Scottish Parliament. I beg to move. On Question, amendment agreed to.