I am aware of the recent UK Office of Fair Trading market study and report on local bus services, mainly outside London and Northern Ireland, where the bus industry has been deregulated.
The Deputy will be aware that the bus sector is not deregulated in this country and this position has been further reinforced by the recent enactment of the Public Transport Regulation Act 2009. Part 2 of the Act establishes a new framework for the licensing of commercial public bus passenger services with the objective of promoting regulated competition in the public interest, as well as the promotion of integrated, well-functioning and cost efficient public passenger transport services.
The Act establishes a clear structure against which applications for bus route licences will be considered by the National Transport Authority. In particular, it introduces the demand test in section 10 which in effect places the consumer at the heart of the process in that the intention is to match service demand with service provision rather than to protect the existing or prospective service providers.
The section also allows the Authority to consider the impact of proposed bus services on contracted public passenger transport services, including subvented services, where appropriate. These provisions will enable the Authority to protect against "cherry-picking" or other inappropriate activity such as that referred to by the Deputy.
Section 23 of the Act provides that the Authority must produce guidelines for the licensing of public bus passenger services under Part 2 of the Act as a whole. Those guidelines must set out the approach that the Authority proposes to apply to the consideration of applications under section 10. The Act also introduces a modern system of penalties and associated powers for revocation of licences where a licence holder has not met the conditions under which the licence was granted.
I am confident that the provisions of the Act will deliver a new robust bus licensing regime to benefit stakeholders and consumers.