§ 17. Andy Burnham(Lab) (Leigh)If he will make a statement on the regulation of bus services. [152287]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr. Tony McNulty)While we have no plans for major changes to the regulatory system for buses, we 619 continue to consider key aspects of the regime established by the Transport Act 2000 and will report shortly, especially on issues such as quality contracts.
§ Andy BurnhamI am grateful for that reply. Bus services are vital to my constituents because, as I may have said once or twice before, Leigh is the largest town in the UK without a railway station. The current regime does not serve my constituents well, especially elderly people who do not have access to private transport. Recently, a bus service between Leigh and Warrington was unilaterally withdrawn, at very short notice. I urge my hon. Friend to give serious consideration to representations made by Greater Manchester passenger transport authority and others for a more effective regulatory regime that better protects the travelling public.
§ Mr. McNultyAs I have said, we are keeping these matters under constant review. Many local authorities have not perhaps explored as fully as they might the total breadth and depth of the regulatory regime in the Transport Act 2000. We shall shortly examine the issue of quality contracts and how they prevail under the system. My hon. Friend's observations are not unique to Leigh or to the north-west, but if he considers all that we have recently reported on—such as the urban bus challenge, the rural bus challenge and the local transport plan settlement, which was reached just before Christmas—he will see that for this Government, the bus is absolutely central to an integrated transport system.