Bus Services (No. 2) Bill [HL]

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb Excerpts

Consideration of Commons amendments and / or reasons
Monday 13th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP)]

I was pleased to hear what the Minister had to say about my amendment. I thank all those who voted for it on Report, including my new Tory best friends, who were very kind to vote for it, and the Lib Dems. It was a novelty and wonderful, and I thank the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, for arranging that.

I think this Bill is doing quite a good job of bringing back quality bus services to urban areas, but we also need to bring good services back to rural areas and villages. That is obvious because rural areas and villages should have just as much love and attention as urban areas. I would see this review as the first step in reducing isolation for those who experience poverty and deprivation, age or ill health and are stuck and cannot go out. For a Green, it is also about reducing car dependency, the number of cars on the road, pollution, road deaths and injuries, so it pays off in every way.

I am glad the Government have accepted the idea of a review. I had hoped they would accept my amendment and put it into their Bill so that I could say that I had changed government legislation. The Minister has told me that what he has done comes under Pepper v Hart. I have no idea what that means, but presumably some of the older Members of this House know. The Opposition Chief Whip says she knows what it is. That is wonderful. However, even when the Minister was telling me that the Government are going to do the review, I was a bit worried about the length of time because five years puts the end of this review into the next Parliament, and who knows what the next Parliament is going to look like? If we have a lot of other types of MPs and perhaps Peers, am I going to be able to hold them to account for the bus review? I am not sure I am. I am glad that the Government are going this way, but I regret that it is not a more powerful signal.