Euro 2016: Fan Violence

Lord Rosser Excerpts

Tuesday 14th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Rosser (Lab)]

My Lords, the violence in Marseilles is to be deplored. It has involved a small minority of England supporters, although organised groups of Russian supporters have apparently been at the heart of the most violent acts. Whoever is to blame, the reality is that matches are taking place in other parts of France, involving other nations’ supporters, without the violence we have seen both inside and outside the stadium in Marseilles.

We can express our concerns about the policing arrangements and tactics in the streets of Marseilles and about ineffective security and segregation arrangements in place inside the stadium. However, the fact is that this is far from the first time that a small minority of England supporters has been involved in violent scenes when our national team has been playing in major competitions abroad. It damages us all and our country.

For the Government to say that they are “hopeful” the French police will reinforce the stewarding arrangements for England’s next game is not sufficient, since clearly the current approach has been shown to be inadequate. What further action are the Government taking in conjunction with UEFA and the French authorities to ensure the safety of the vast majority of supporters from the three home nations involved, who are only in France to enjoy the football? In addition, what further action are the Government taking to prevent similar trouble arising, associated with England and Wales playing in Lens on Thursday, particularly bearing in mind that the previous day Russia will have been playing in Lille only some 25 miles away, and that many England and Wales supporters are likely to be basing themselves in Lille alongside Russian supporters?

[Lord Keen of Elie]

I entirely concur with the observations of the noble Lord with regard to the outrageous behaviour of a very small minority of English supporters, which casts a shadow upon all those others who simply wish to enjoy a UEFA championship tournament. With regard to further steps and to policing within stadiums, one has to bear in mind that the conditions for policing and the segregation of fans differ between Europe and our domestic football league. Under the present UEFA rules, it is not possible for the police to be stationed within the stadium during the match. Consequently, segregation is left to stewards within the stadium. That is the subject of ongoing discussion.

With regard to further assistance from this Government, further police officers were requested by the French, and police spotters will be provided in Lens in the run-up to the match between England and Wales. In addition, British Transport Police officers have been stationed on cross-channel services, and indeed on services to Lens and up to Lille itself. Furthermore, the Foreign Office has given advice that those without tickets should not travel to Lens or to Lille. As the noble Lord observed, on the day before the match in Lens there is a match between Russia and Slovakia in Lille.

Orlando Terrorist Attack

Lord Rosser Excerpts

Monday 13th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Rosser (Lab)]

My Lords, we endorse the words of condemnation that have just been expressed about the homophobic terrorist atrocity in Orlando, and we express our condolences to the families of those who have been murdered. Our thoughts are with those who have been injured and their loved ones, and with the people of Orlando, in particular, and of America as a whole.

We are not, as we know only too well, immune from such atrocities and hate crimes from those who want to divide, not unite our communities. We seek to create an environment where no sections of our community are demonised or feel threatened or discriminated against, since we recognise that if we can achieve that goal it will encourage and deliver the tolerance and understanding of each other which is the hallmark of a stable, safe and decent society. Bearing in mind his own responsibilities for community cohesion and addressing hatred and prejudice, will the Minister say what further steps the Government will now consider in this vital area in the light of the Orlando atrocity?

We in this country believe in the importance of severely restricting access to and the possession and ownership of guns as an essential prerequisite to our reducing the likelihood of such terrible events here. Do the Government now consider, in the light of the Orlando atrocity and other terrorist atrocities being committed elsewhere in the world, that further measures are needed to help to ensure the safety of those attending imminent forthcoming Pride celebrations, or are they satisfied with the present security arrangements in place?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord. I am sure his sentiments and his unequivocal condemnation of this heinous crime resonate across the House. On the issue of community cohesion, we celebrate Britain for its diversity and the strength of its people of all backgrounds, races and faiths and of different sexual orientations, who come together and who celebrate and define what Britain is today. The Government are totally committed to ensuring that we continue to protect that so we can continue to celebrate what Britain stands for in the modern world today.

On the question of firearms, as noble Lords will be aware, the UK has some of the toughest gun laws in the world and we are determined to keep it that way. The Policing and Crime Bill will introduce changes to firearms legislation, including a new offence of unlawfully converting imitation firearms into firearms, and tightening definitions on, for example, antique firearms. The UK is also co-operating with Europe to prevent the movement of people and weapons linked to terrorism.

On the noble Lord’s final point about the LGBT community and issues relating to Gay Pride, as I said in the Statement, UK police forces will be further reviewing plans for large-scale and other public events over the coming days and weeks. While that remains an operational matter for the police, they are not advising any organisers to cancel or even postpone any LGBT-related events.

Drugs Policy

Lord Rosser Excerpts

Monday 13th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

As I said, there is a specific procedure in place. Another cannabinoid substance, Nabilone, is authorised in the UK and used in the treatment of cancer patients—but it is a synthetic compound, not related directly to cannabis. There are specific measures in place, and the Government believe those measures to be appropriate. If other such medicines need to be authorised, there is a process to be followed.

[Lord Rosser (Lab)]

My Lords, 26 June is International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1987. It is intended to serve as a reminder of the goals achieved by member states for creating an international society free of drug abuse. Can the Minister add any more to what he has already said, which frankly at the moment is not a great deal, about what new initiatives the Government are currently taking or about to take through the United Nations and on the international stage generally to help achieve that overall goal on drug abuse?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

As I have said already, and shall say again to the noble Lord, we led on the international response to new psychoactive substances. To highlight some of the other actions that we have taken together on the international stage, and through the UN, there is the formation of a UK-led International Action Group on New Psychoactive Substances; the establishment of a global early-warning system at the UN; the first two tranches of international controls on some of the most harmful new psychoactive substances; domestic control of more than 100 harmful substances by China; and five recent UN resolutions on new psychoactive substances. That has enhanced international co-operation, and Britain has led the way on these initiatives.

Female Genital Mutilation

Lord Rosser Excerpts

Thursday 9th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Rosser (Lab)]

The noble Lord, Lord Berkeley of Knighton, has raised a seemingly simple and straightforward issue: namely, the contrast between the number of reported cases of female genital mutilation and the lack of successful prosecutions. The reason for that cannot be a lack of legislation—although how effective it is proving may be another matter—with the Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985, the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 and, finally, the Serious Crime Act 2015, which extended the reach of the previous Acts including through mandatory reporting and enabling authorities, in respect of future offences, to prosecute parents for failing to protect their daughters regardless of whether the daughters have named them as complicit in their FGM. We await to see whether the Government agree that there is a problem and, if so, to what they attribute that difficulty.

Others have already highlighted potential reasons for the lack of successful prosecutions, including the National FGM Centre, which is a partnership between Barnardo’s and the Local Government Association. In the past year, the centre has provided specialist social care provision in six local authorities considered to have “low prevalence” of FGM. Despite this, the centre worked on 71 cases involving 70 women and 95 girls at risk of or affected by FGM. The centre says that a significant barrier to successful prosecutions is insufficient communication between professionals, particularly those working in health and social care. Although health professionals are under a duty to record cases of FGM, the centre says that the data show that only 17 GP practices produced any records at all in the last quarter of 2015.

The National FGM Centre goes on to say that low confidence among education professionals in asking sensitive questions and assessing risk also results in limited referrals to social care from education, and that when they do happen they often contain insufficient information to be processed by social care. It goes on to say that a number of social care professionals still feel uncomfortable in assessing FGM risk or using the tools available to them such as medical checks or FGM protection orders, with this being especially the case, once again, in “low prevalence areas”.

Barnardo’s has set out a number of recommendations for increasing the number of successful prosecutions, including more specialist training for front-line professionals, better information systems between key agencies, compliance with recording and reporting requirements by all professionals, specialist social care provision and lesson plans on FGM in schools.

The Local Government Association has also sent a briefing, setting out its views on the issue of prosecutions raised in this debate. It says that more than 125,000 women in England and Wales are estimated to be living with the consequences of FGM, and there are 60,000 girls born in England and Wales to mothers who have undergone FGM. Another analysis has said that approximately 10,000 girls aged under 15 who have migrated to England and Wales are likely to have undergone, or are likely to undergo, FGM.

The key points made by the Local Government Association on the lack of successful prosecutions are that FGM is often carried out on young girls who may not understand what is being done to them, or if they are, may be unwilling to testify against close family members; and that, in the overwhelming majority of cases in the UK, the FGM has been carried out before the women and girls arrived in this country.

The Local Government Association says that FGM will be eradicated in the longer term only by changing practice and custom in communities where it happens. It says that through the National FGM Centre programmes are being rolled out across the country to shift attitudes and behaviour towards better prevention of FGM. As has been said, FGM is most often claimed to be carried out in accordance with religious beliefs, but it is not actually supported by any religious doctrine.

There is a rather different emphasis on the reasons for the lack of successful prosecutions between the National FGM Centre and the Local Government Association, and we wait to hear the Government’s views on this issue. There is no doubt, however, that encouraging and promoting change in practice and customs will be crucial, and it is far better to succeed in preventing the offence happening in the first place than it is to prosecute after it has happened. Equally, in the light of the law of the land, action needs to be taken that will help in the shorter term to address the issue of FGM, which is a serious crime, and the lack of successful prosecutions. The lack of successful prosecutions hardly acts as a disincentive to those who commit or aid and abet this serious crime.

The Local Government Association has referred to the work of the Bristol FGM Community Development project, which has led to the development of appropriate services in the community and to an increase in referrals to the police, with a 400% increase in potential FGM referrals from 2009 to 2014. Does the Minister have any information on the outcome of this increase in referrals to the police, based on the work done in Bristol?

In its report last year on FGM, the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee was quite blunt in its comments, saying that,

“it is still the case that there have been no successful prosecutions for FGM in the United Kingdom in the last 20 years. This record is lamentable”.

Further on in the report, the committee said:

“There seems to be a chasm between the amount of reported cases and the lack of prosecutions. Someone, somewhere is not doing their job effectively. The DPP informed the Committee that she could only prosecute on the basis of evidence, the police said that they could only investigate on the basis of referral, and the health professionals told us that they could not refer cases because their members were not fully trained and aware of the procedure. While agencies played pass the parcel of responsibility, young girls are being mutilated every hour of the day. This is deplorable. We wish to see more prosecutions brought and convictions secured. This barbaric crime which is committed daily on such a huge scale across the UK cannot continue to go unpunished”.

The Home Office Minister in the Commons has said that lead FGM prosecutors have been appointed for each Crown Prosecution Service area and have agreed joint FGM investigation and prosecution protocols with their local police forces. Have any of these lead FGM prosecutors yet authorised a prosecution for FGM? The same Minister also said last month that the Government accepted that tackling FGM needed a co-ordinated response from a range of professionals, including teachers, health professionals, social workers and police, and that updated multiagency guidance on FGM had been published to support compliance. The Minister also said that free FGM e-learning had been made available for all professionals; that the Department of Health’s FGM prevention programme was seeking to improve the response of the NHS to FGM; and that the Department for Education was funding the Local Government Association and Barnardo’s to develop a centre of excellence and outreach to support local authorities. On the face of it, that all sounds good.

However, how much co-ordination is there at government level, bearing in mind the number of different departments involved, each with their own programme or projects for their own specific areas? What is the total amount of additional money that is now being made available, and to whom, to address the incidence of FGM and the lack of successful prosecutions? As far as the police are concerned, is it ultimately a matter for a chief constable or a police and crime commissioner to decide what resources and priority will be directed to pursuing FGM referrals within their force? Do the Government agree with the recommendations of Barnardo’s for increasing the number of successful prosecutions for FGM, to which I referred earlier? If so, are the Government saying that the steps they have taken already will deliver those recommendations? When do the Government anticipate seeing a reduction in the incidence of FGM? When do they expect to see successful prosecutions in the light of the legislative and other steps that have been taken? Finally, is there any hard evidence yet that the legislative changes in respect of FGM introduced under the Serious Crime Act 2015 are beginning to have an impact?

Immigration

Lord Rosser Excerpts

Wednesday 8th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Keen of Elie]

The pressure of economic migration has been driven in part by the success of our economy, making us a goal for so many migrants who are on the continent already. With regard to when we hope to achieve sustainable levels, it is our ambition to achieve sustainable levels of migration during this Parliament. There may of course be two routes to that goal, depending on the outcome of 23 June.

[Lord Rosser (Lab)]

There are a number of points that can be made about the immigration figures at this crucial time: the reality that a very significant percentage of the figure does not relate to people coming from within the EU; that the number arriving includes many tens of thousands who are British passport holders; that the figure includes significant numbers of students; that the vast majority of those who come from the EU are coming here to take up jobs; and that without them our economy and public services would be in even more difficulty. Can the Minister say when the Home Secretary herself is going to adopt a much higher profile, both in challenging the distortions currently being presented about immigration and in emphasising her support for remaining in the EU, when the Home Secretary, more than anyone else, will be guaranteed media coverage for what she says on immigration?

[Lord Keen of Elie]

The Home Secretary and her Ministers have been consistent in considering and addressing the issue of migration into this country. With regard to the figures mentioned by the noble Lord, I concur that the extent of net migration is greater from outside the EEA or European Union than from within, even today. With regard to those coming from the European Union, there is no doubt that more than 70% already have a job waiting for them in this country. We are taking steps to control migration and the Home Secretary is spearheading those initiatives.

Police: Armed Officers

Lord Rosser Excerpts

Wednesday 8th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Keen of Elie]

Clearly, this Government have been committed to the development of community relations. The use of firearms is one aspect in that context.

[Lord Rosser (Lab)]

The noble and learned Lord mentioned £143 million. How much of that is being allocated for the additional firearms officers? I think that a figure of 1,500 of them has previously been mentioned by the Government. What will be the full-year costs of training, equipping and paying the salaries and employers’ costs of 1,500 additional firearms officers? There have been suggestions that the amount of money mentioned by the Government would work out at about £22,500 per additional officer. That seems rather low. Can he guarantee that none of these additional costs will have to be financed out of existing police budgets?

[Lord Keen of Elie]

The sum of £143 million, which will be provided during the course of the spending review, is intended to provide a national uplift of about 1,000 additional armed police—not 1,500—and provide 40 more police armed response vehicles. I cannot give the precise figures that the noble Lord just asked me for, but I undertake to write if those figures are available.

Immigration: Detention of Pregnant Women

Lord Rosser Excerpts

Wednesday 25th May 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Keen of Elie]

It is intended that even before a pregnant woman is detained, her welfare will be taken into consideration. Consideration of her welfare will include the question of whether adequate facilities are available to that woman if she is detained. In the event of detention in an immigration centre such as Yarl’s Wood, there are adequate facilities to deal with pregnant women.

[Lord Rosser (Lab)]

On 26 April, the noble and learned Lord told the House that on that day there was one pregnant woman in the immigration detention system. He also said that further guidance on the question of vulnerable persons, including pregnant women, would be produced in May and laid before Parliament in order,

“that that position can be maintained”.—[Official Report, 26/4/16; col. 1095.]

Can the Minister tell us, first, how many pregnant women are in immigration detention today, and, secondly, what the highest number of pregnant women who have been in immigration detention has been on any one day since 26 April, when he said there was just one? Thirdly, what is the position with the further guidance being produced this month?

[Lord Keen of Elie]

With respect to the present position, as of today no women with confirmed pregnancies are being detained under Immigration Act powers in an immigration detention centre or residential short-term holding facility. As for the statistics for the period since 26 April, I am not in a position to give a number, but I undertake to write to the noble Lord providing such figure as is available from the present data, which generally speaking are management data. On the matter of pregnant women and regulations, in accordance with the regulations made this week, the Act’s provisions on pregnant women and adults at risk will come into force on 12 July. The publication of guidance on the matter is in the course of final preparation and will be made available as soon as possible.

Domestic Abuse: Rural Communities

Lord Rosser Excerpts

Tuesday 24th May 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Keen of Elie]

There is no doubt that the problems faced, particularly in rural areas, could be addressed earlier. Indeed, our nationally acclaimed campaign, This is Abuse, has had an impact. We have invested a further £3.8 million in a new campaign, Disrespect NoBody, which we hope will build awareness of these issues.

[Lord Rosser (Lab)]

This is also an issue for police and crime commissioners to address in their respective areas, since through the police budget, for which commissioners are responsible, they can determine the resources, finances, staff and training, and the priority that will be given to and by their police forces to address domestic abuse. The police and crime commissioners can then hold their chief constables to account, and then be held to account themselves, if those resources are not effectively and appropriately used for the purpose for which they, as commissioners, have allocated them. Can the Minister confirm that that statement—of the key and powerful accountable role and responsibility of police and crime commissioners in addressing domestic abuse and violence in their respective areas—is a correct statement of the position?

[Lord Keen of Elie]

The position of the Government is that police and crime commissioners will take a leading role in co-ordinating the response to issues of domestic abuse. Indeed, this will be done in parallel to the national statement of expectations, which is a blueprint for local areas and local partnerships, at the head of which will be our successful commissioners.

Migration: Middle East and North Africa

Lord Rosser Excerpts

Thursday 12th May 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Keen of Elie]

We would certainly not want to be drawn into agreement with authoritarian regimes in that part of Africa. However, it is necessary, as I said, to address these problems at source.

[Lord Rosser (Lab)]

My Lords, does the Government not accept that it is wars, repression and instability that primarily lead to the mass movement of people? If those seeking to come to Europe from the Middle East and north Africa are simply economic migrants, why is it that after every outbreak of violence and repression we get a new wave of people from the area that has just had that outbreak?

[Lord Keen of Elie]

I must say that listening to Labour opine on the matter of immigration and immigration control is rather like listening to an arsonist on the subject of fire prevention.

Bus Services

Lord Rosser Excerpts

Wednesday 11th May 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Rosser (Lab)]

First, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, for having secured this debate and for giving us the opportunity to discuss a vital mode of transport that is used by millions of people to get to work, to seek work, to attend hospital, to go shopping, to travel to and from school or to spend a few hours in their busy lives enjoying some leisure time.

The new Mayor of London has already made one policy announcement on reducing bus fares, by enabling passengers to make a second bus journey without further charge within one hour of touching in on the first bus. This will be extended by 2018, once ticketing technology has been upgraded to enable passengers to make unlimited bus transfers within one hour—Labour in action, cutting costs for bus passengers and increasing the attractiveness of bus travel.

There were some 4.6 billion passenger journeys, as has been said, on buses in England last year. That sounds a lot but the trend is downwards. There are commercially operated services and services supported by local authorities. The Government’s consistent attack on local government budgets over the last six years has led to a reduction in the ability of local government to provide the money to maintain bus services which are needed but which commercial operators will not provide themselves because they would not be profitable to run. This situation is continuing and even though this Government are spending money or giving handouts elsewhere at present, some local authorities are still being forced to review the extent to which they can continue to provide much-needed bus services for the communities that they serve, due to funding cuts.

More than half of all local authorities in England have cut funding for buses in the last year to 18 months while some 40% have removed or withdrawn services. Seventy per cent of local authorities have cut support for bus services since 2010. In addition to the cut of nearly a third in funding for local authorities, the bus service operators grant, which provides a fuel duty rebate to bus service operators, has been cut. Local authorities have had to reduce funding for bus services by at least 15%, while bus fares have risen by a quarter over the last five years. Some 2,400 local authority-supported bus services have been cut or downgraded.

Unprofitable but needed bus services account for some 17% of bus services in England outside London—down from 24% in 2009-10. They are often the only form of public transport which people in more isolated communities, outside conurbations and major towns, can access. A Commons Transport Select Committee report on passenger transport in isolated communities stated:

“The DfT must recognise that passenger transport provision is fundamental to achieving the objectives of the Department of Health, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education in isolated communities”.

Of course, one-third of all bus journeys are undertaken by the 10 million older and disabled people with concessionary bus passes, like me. Councils have a statutory duty to provide free off-peak bus travel, but funding for the scheme has been cut by nearly 40%, which means that increasingly councils are having to subsidise this free travel at a time when they are struggling to protect vital services such as adult social care, protecting children and collecting household rubbish.

It was of course the 1985 Transport Act which deregulated bus services in England outside London. Since then, local bus passenger journeys made outside London have decreased, as has already been said, by 37%. More than half of all bus passenger journeys made in England now occur in London, which with its regulated services has seen an increase of some 100% in bus use since 1985—albeit, as I understand it, bus use in London may have decreased last year.

In a briefing for this debate, Transport for Greater Manchester said that in its area, bus patronage has remained flat for very nearly the last 20 years. This is better than across Britain as a whole, but does not stand favourable comparison with London. Transport for Greater Manchester says that one of the key reasons behind what it describes as the poor patronage performance of buses derives from the current deregulated market structure. The problem, it says, lies not with the bus companies but with the system within which the companies are obliged to operate. Deregulation, it says, limits the degree to which bus services can be fully joined up and co-ordinated with each other and with other public transport modes. It also inhibits sensible and easy joint ticketing systems such as Oyster, and, unlike in London, it is not possible to offer a single, simple range of tickets valid on all operators’ services. Passengers, it says, are presented with a confusing array of single and multi-operator tickets, and are forced to commit to a particular ticket in advance of travelling, which can be problematic if their travel needs unexpectedly change.

Transport for Greater Manchester continues by saying that deregulation presents a confusing and ever-changing picture of services to the passenger. It prevents, it says, efficient cross-subsidy. On-road competition means that available bus resources are not deployed as efficiently as they could be under a planned franchised environment. Consequently, deregulated bus services in Greater Manchester are not fulfilling their undoubted potential and consequently are not fully serving the city region’s long-term needs. Franchising, says Transport for Greater Manchester, presents a well-understood and much-used model of delivery that secures the benefits of competition while allowing passengers to use an efficiently co-ordinated set of bus services within an integrated public transport network.

When the Minister responds, perhaps he could confirm that those views on a deregulated bus system compared to a regulated or franchised system expressed by Transport for Greater Manchester also reflect the Government’s view. I do not recall the last Mayor of London—who had some sympathy with the Government, apart from on membership of the European Union—ever campaigning to have a deregulated market structure for buses introduced in the capital. Could the Government also say when the elusive buses Bill is going to start its legislative journey through Parliament, which House it will go to first and when it is expected by the Government to reach its destination and become an Act?

Could the Minister say something about the intended content of the buses Bill and whether, in the Government’s view, it will deliver the changes to the current deregulated market structure that Transport for Greater Manchester is seeking, as set out in the briefing to which I referred? Could the Minister also say, if that is the case, whether the Bill will enable those changes to apply to all local transport authorities that want them?

The Question we are discussing refers to the impact of trends in the provision of bus services on the environment. Buses are becoming much more environmentally friendly, thanks in part to European regulations, but with bus use in decline outside London and the number of buses on the roads falling, the potential favourable environmental impacts of cleaner buses are being diminished, not maximised. Of course, a number of local areas have seen the introduction of environmentally friendlier buses, including London, Reading, Southampton, Newcastle, Bristol and in parts of Lancashire. Transport authorities should have powers to set environmental standards for buses in their area of operation. Perhaps the Minister can tell us whether that is a power that transport authorities generally will be given.

Increasing bus patronage is environmentally friendly, particularly if it results from a transfer from journeys by car. Achieving that includes making journeys by bus a relaxing and stress-free experience. In London, nearly all buses have audiovisual announcements telling passengers the next stop—a crucial facility for those who are visually impaired or hard of hearing. Outside London, apart from areas where local authorities still operate buses, audiovisual announcements are few and far between. Bearing in mind the many calls for such a facility to be provided, including from parliamentary committees, can the Minister assure us that a requirement to have audiovisual announcements on buses—at the very least, on new vehicles—will be included in the forthcoming buses Bill? There is surely no excuse for not doing so. Likewise, can the Minister assure us that the buses Bill will include a requirement for drivers to have the benefit of disability awareness training since, once again, such training can mean the difference between those with a disability feeling encouraged to travel by bus and discouraged from travelling by bus? As I understand it, disability awareness training is, to say the least, patchy.

The buses Bill presents an opportunity for the Government to reverse the damage that has been and continues to be done to local bus services outside London in recent years and to provide, where there is such a demand, for a structure and system for the operation and regulation or franchising of bus services that promotes and encourages bus use, along with the funding to enable these objectives to be delivered. I hope that when the Minister responds, he will reply to the many specific questions raised in the debate and set out how the Government intend to grasp the opportunities provided by the buses Bill for increasing and improving bus services on which so many people depend.