§ Mr. Don FosterTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what representations he has received from(a) industry and (b) passenger groups regarding the regulation of buses; and what changes he (i) has made and (ii) plans to make to regulation within the industry. [64137]
§ Mr. JamiesonThe bus industry is broadly content with the existing regulatory framework and advocates stability. As for passenger groups, the National Federation of Bus Users has made representations on the improvement of service provision and reliability, particularly through bus priorities, but has not specified regulation of the industry as a major concern.
We are always looking at ways of improving the details of regulation. On 1 March we extended the notice period for introducing or changing a local bus service registration to 56 days, and abolished the rule which allowed local service operators to alter timetables by up to 5 minutes from the registered time without changing the registration. We will soon be consulting on proposals to facilitate the registration of flexibly routed local bus services.