§ Mr. DjanoglyTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) what estimate he has made of the potential costs to(a) each local authority, (b) London boroughs and (c) local government as a whole, of replacing the national minimum standards for concessionary travel schemes for people over the age of 60 with a 100 per cent. discount on fares for people over the age of 70; [134384]
153W(2) what estimate he has made of the change in the local government finance settlement necessary fully to reimburse local government for the costs of replacing the national minimum standards for concessionary travel schemes for people aged over 60 with schemes providing travel tokens worth (a) £25 and (b) £50 to (i) to people aged over 60, (ii) all pensioners and (iii) to people aged over 70; [134385]
(3) what estimate he has made of the potential cost to (a) each local authority, (b) the London boroughs and (c) local government as a whole of replacing the national minimum standards for concessionary travel schemes for people aged over 60 with schemes providing travel tokens worth (i) £25 and (ii) £50 to (A) to people aged over 60, (B) all pensioners and (C) to people aged over 70; [134386]
(4) what estimate he has made of the change in the local government finance settlement necessary to reimburse fully local government for the costs of replacing the national minimum standards for concessionary travel schemes for people over the age of 60 with a 100 per cent. discount on fares for people over the age of 70. [134387]
§ Mr. McNultyThe extension this year of the minimum statutory requirement to men aged 60-65 cost £50 million per year. The Government does not plan further extensions of concessionary fares. We estimate that free concessionary travel for pensioners in England (women aged 60 and over, men aged 65 and over) would cost in excess of an extra £300 million a year. We have not costed all the variants listed in the question and could do so only at disproportionate cost.