HC Deb 25 June 1984 vol 62 cc777-9

Lords amendments: No. 44, in page 97, line 47, at end insert or to any subsidiary of London Regional Transport (within the meaning of the London Regional Transport Act 1984)

Mrs. Chalker

I beg to move, that this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.

The amendment remedies a small oversight in paragraph 22 of schedule 6. That paragraph will enable LRT to retain the exemption that London Transport and British Rail have from the general requirement placed on public service vehicle operators, under section 27 of the Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981, to produce financial and statistical returns to the Secretary of State. We omitted before to apply that exemption to the subsidiaries as well. The amendment puts that right, because it is obviously sensible to treat LRT and the subsidiaries in the same way, which we undertook to do in Committee. Therefore, the amendment simply does something that we wished to do in Committee.

Mr. Prescott

Is this matter connected with the information required of local authorities under the Public Passenger Vehicles Act? In that Act, it was laid down that detailed statistical and financial information was required from local authorities. It is not normally required of nationalised industries because of the different arrangements between the Secretary of State and nationalised industries. Will the same amount of information be required of LRT by the Minister's Department as is now required of the GLC and LT?

Mrs. Chalker

By leave of the House. I was trying to assist the hon. Gentleman, but he may have misunderstood what I was trying to say. The amendment puts LRT subsidiaries—LRT bus and underground, and any other subsidiary—on the same basis as LRT. That is the basis under which LT has been operating since the 1981 Act. That means that the financial and statistical returns should be made to the Secretary of State. In Committee we decided to treat the subsidiaries in the same way as LRT, so that they would be able to retain the exemption that LT and BR have from the general requirement.

Mr. Prescott

By leave of the House. I am sorry to press this point. The legislation in 1981 required that detailed and specific information should be given. Will the information required of subsidiaries of LRT be considerably less than that expected of the GLC when it previously ran London Transport?

Mrs. Chalker

No. I do not think that the hon. Gentleman is on the same point at all. We are talking about the requirement upon the subsidiaries to produce the information. We are not altering any of the understanding that we had in Committee when we discussed the matter. The amendment ensures that the subsidiaries are in line with the holding company in the production of information.

Question put and agreed to.

Lords amendment No. 45 agreed to.

Lords amendment: No. 46, in page 99, line 14, at end insert—

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  1. The Food Act 1984 365 words