1St Report of Session 2016–17
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HOUSE OF LORDS Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee 1st Report of Session 2016–17 Bus Services Bill [HL] Children and Social Work Bill [HL] Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill [HL] Intellectual Property (Unjustified Threats) Bill [HL] Ordered to be printed 15 June and published 17 June 2016 Published by the Authority of the House of Lords HL Paper 13 The Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee The Committee is appointed by the House of Lords each session and has the following terms of reference: (i) To report whether the provisions of any bill inappropriately delegate legislative power, or whether they subject the exercise of legislative power to an inappropriate degree of parliamentary scrutiny; (ii) To report on documents and draft orders laid before Parliament under or by virtue of: (a) sections 14 and 18 of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006, (b) section 7(2) or section 19 of the Localism Act 2011, or (c) section 5E(2) of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004; and to perform, in respect of such draft orders, and in respect of subordinate provisions orders made or proposed to be made under the Regulatory Reform Act 2001, the functions performed in respect of other instruments and draft instruments by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments; and (iii) To report on documents and draft orders laid before Parliament under or by virtue of: (a) section 85 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, (b) section 17 of the Local Government Act 1999, (c) section 9 of the Local Government Act 2000, (d) section 98 of the Local Government Act 2003, or (e) section 102 of the Local Transport Act 2008. Membership The members of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee are: Baroness Drake Lord Lisvane Baroness Fookes (Chairman) Lord Moynihan Lord Flight Lord Thomas of Gresford Baroness Gould of Potternewton Lord Thurlow Lord Jones Lord Tyler Registered Interests Committee Members’ registered interests may be examined in the online Register of Lords’ Interests at www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldreg.htm. The Register may also be inspected in the Parliamentary Archives. Publications The Committee’s reports are published by the Stationery Office by Order of the House in hard copy and on the internet at www.parliament.uk/hldprrcpublications. General Information General information about the House of Lords and its Committees, including guidance to witnesses, details of current inquiries and forthcoming meetings is on the internet at http://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/. Contacts for the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee Any query about the Committee or its work should be directed to the Clerk of Delegated Legislation, Legislation Office, House of Lords, London, SW1A 0PW. The telephone number is 020 7219 3103 and the fax number is 020 7219 2571. The Committee’s email address is [email protected]. Historical Note In February 1992, the Select Committee on the Committee work of the House, under the chairmanship of Earl Jellicoe, noted that “in recent years there has been considerable disquiet over the problem of wide and sometimes ill-defined order-making powers which give Ministers unlimited discretion” (Session 1991–92, HL Paper 35-I, paragraph 133). The Committee recommended the establishment of a delegated powers scrutiny committee which would, it suggested, “be well suited to the revising function of the House”. As a result, the Select Committee on the Scrutiny of Delegated Powers was appointed experimentally in the following session. It was established as a sessional committee from the beginning of Session 1994–95. The Committee also has responsibility for scrutinising legislative reform orders under the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006 and certain instruments made under other Acts specified in the Committee’s terms of reference. First Report BUS SERVICES BILL [HL] 1. The Bus Services Bill had its second reading on 8 June. Its purpose is described in the Explanatory Notes1 as providing Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) with “a wider set of tools to use to address inefficiencies in their local bus markets and to work with commercial operators to provide better bus services for passengers”. To this end, the Bill contains provisions intended to: • provide the powers for combined authorities with directly elected Mayors to implement bus franchising; • allow LTAs to enter into Advance Quality Partnership Schemes and Enhanced Partnerships with local bus operators; • facilitate access by passengers to information about routes, fares and timetables; • enhance LTAs’ powers to make multi-operator ticketing schemes covering new technologies; • clarify legislation dealing with rail replacement bus services and a Competition and Markets Authority remedy about deregistered and varied services. 2. There are several delegated powers in the Bill. The Department for Transport has provided a memorandum about these,2 as well as a supplementary memorandum specifically about clause 18.3 We wish to draw the following matters to the attention of the House. Clause 4 – power to extending access to franchising schemes to authorities other than mayoral combined authorities 3. Clause 4 inserts new sections 123A to 123X into the Transport Act 2000 to provide for bus franchising schemes in England. According to the Explanatory Notes— “franchising allows local transport authorities to replace the current deregulated model of local bus services in their area with a system under which the authority specifies the services to be provided, and bus operators bid to provide those services–akin to the system currently operated by Transport for London”.4 4. Only a mayoral combined authority will be allowed to enter into franchise schemes as soon as clause 4 comes into force.5 Other types of local authority have to be given permission by the Secretary of State, by way of affirmative 1 See para 1. 2 Department for Transport, Delegated Powers Memorandum: http://www.parliament.uk/documents/ lords-committees/delegated-powers/Bus-Services-Bill-DPM.pdf 3 Department for Transport, Supplementary Delegated Powers Memorandum: http://www.parliament.uk/ documents/lords-committees/delegated-powers/Bus-Services-Bill-Supp-DPM.pdf 4 See para 5. 5 Clause 25(2) provides for clause 4 to come into force two months after the date of Royal Assent. 2 DELEGATED POWERS AND REGULATORY REFORM COMMITTEE regulations, before they too can be franchising authorities. This is due to the delegated power conferred by the final sentence of new section 123A(4). 5. The memorandum (paragraph 23) gives the following justification for this power: “We do not want to provide for these powers to be available to such authorities automatically. This is because, before deciding whether to make regulations expanding the categories of franchising authorities, the Secretary of State would like to consider whether there is interest from authorities other than Mayoral Combined Authorities in pursuing a franchising approach, and consider any work that other authorities are undertaking on whether the outcomes they wish to achieve in relation to local bus services in their area could be realised through bus franchising. The Government considers that it is important to come back to Parliament to debate the benefits and implications of potentially opening up access to franchising powers to a wider group of authorities.” 6. The memorandum does not explain, however, why a mayoral combined authority, alone among the authorities listed in new section 123A(4), would be permitted to become a franchising authority upon the coming into force of clause 4. 7. We are also puzzled by the implication in the memorandum that mayoral combined authorities have expressed an interest in pursuing a franchising approach, given that there are currently no combined authorities with a mayor. Although an order has been made providing for the Greater Manchester combined authority to be a mayoral combined authority, its mayor will not be elected until May 2017.6 8. The types of authority listed in new section 123A(4)(b) to (f) are all in existence, and so would be capable of expressing an interest in pursuing a franchising approach; and the merits of their doing so could be debated during the passage of the Bill through Parliament. 9. We have therefore found it difficult to assess, on the basis of the explanation in the memorandum, whether it is appropriate to delegate to the Secretary of State a power to allow the authorities referred to in section 123A(4)(b) to (f) to become franchising authorities, instead of this arising immediately upon the commencement of clause 4. The House may therefore wish to ask the Minister to provide a fuller rationale for the power in new section 123A(4). Clause 17 – power to require provision of information about English bus services 10. Clause 17 inserts a new section 141A into the Transport Act 2000. This would confer a wide power on the Secretary of State to make regulations, under the affirmative procedure, compelling operators of local bus services and others to provide information. 6 See the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (Election of Mayor with Police and Crime Commissioner Functions) Order 2016 (S.I. 2016/448), made on 29 March 2016 under section 107A of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 (inserted by section 2 of the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016). DELEGATED POWERS AND REGULATORY REFORM COMMITTEE 3 11. New section 141A(1) specifies that the power could be exercised to require: • applicants for the registration of relevant local services, or for the variation or cancellation of a registration, to provide prescribed information in relation to the services or application; • operators of registered relevant local services” to provide prescribed information in relation to the services; • local transport authorities to provide prescribed information about relevant local services provided under specified types of arrangements; • traffic commissioners to provide prescribed information that is held by them in relation to relevant local services.