Localism Bill

Lord Shipley Excerpts

Monday 20th June 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord McKenzie of Luton]

Amendment 32 introduces a new clause related to integrated transport authorities and passenger transport executives. The form of the clause should come as no surprise, as it was moved in exactly this form in Committee in the other place. Indeed, if we took it forward at Report, it would need some updating—for example, to touch on some of the issues we discussed earlier on Clause 5, and so on. In that debate, the Minister, Andrew Stunell, said:

“Integrated transport authorities and passenger transport executives are the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Transport. I am sure that he will be interested in the points that have been made, so I will ensure that the relevant parts of Hansard are drawn to his attention. I am sure that the appropriateness of the available powers is something that he will want to consider in light of the views of the sector and, more widely, of the local government community”.—[Official Report, Commons, Public Bill Committee on the Localism Bill, 10/3/11; col. 961.]

The purpose of retabling the amendment is to give the Minister the opportunity to give us an update.

Noble Lords will probably be pleased to know that I do not propose to go through the amendment line by line, but perhaps I could spend a few moments to explain what it would do and why for those who have not joined our debate before. The new clause would give the six integrated passenger transport authorities a general power in recognition that integrated transport authorities are single purpose authorities. The provisions have been drafted using the same structure as those setting up the general powers for fire and rescue authorities, but with changes to reflect the differences between integrated transport authorities and fire and rescue authorities. The six integrated transport authorities and their passenger transport executives represent the six largest city regions outside London, which are home to 11 million people. The integrated transport authorities and passenger transport executives are the strategic bodies that plan, promote, procure and provide the public transport networks on which those conurbations rely to keep them moving, and which are vital for their development.

The impact assessment on the general power of competence for fire and rescue authorities states:

“Stand-alone fire and rescue authorities will need a similar power”—

to that of local authorities—

“to address the lack of sufficient freedoms and flexibilities to do things that they might properly wish to do which could benefit or contribute to their purposes. Freeing up fire and rescue authorities by providing general powers in the same vein as for local authorities, will therefore … promote the radical devolution of power away from Westminster and Whitehall”.

It would therefore seem perverse, having discussed those powers, if integrated transport authorities were not seen to need similar powers to address the lack of freedoms and flexibilities that may affect what they may properly wish to do.

The major reason why integrated transport authorities require a general power is the straightforward fact that they want to deliver better services more efficiently through collaborative working, which will become increasingly important in current times. It is considered that, without a general power, the integrated transport authorities and their passenger transport executives will not have the legal compass that local authorities will enjoy. Services in the public sector are being challenged to do more with fewer resources and to work in different ways to deliver services. Transport authorities should be able to support growth through local enterprise partnerships, so their ability to work collaboratively across partners will be increasingly important as the new structures develop.

A functional general power would facilitate such working much more readily. It would put beyond doubt the legal uncertainty that might hold back innovative initiatives in metropolitan areas. In non-metropolitan areas, the transport function sits with the local authority, which will have the general power of competence, so there starts to be a divide between transport authorities that have a general power and those that do not.

A general power for the integrated transport authorities and their passenger transport executives would assist them in joint procurement, partnership work and innovative service provision. For example, the Government have said that they want the majority of public transport journeys to be made using smart ticketing by 2014, and they have provided passenger transport executives and Bristol, Nottingham and Leicester local authorities with funding to achieve that. The PTEs are working with Bristol, Nottingham and Leicester authorities on issues such as systems testing, data analysis and ticketing equipment to ensure that that government objective is met in a timely and cost-effective way. However, without any change to the general power of competence, local authorities in those three areas will have that power to engage in joint enterprises and deliver such programmes, but passenger transport executives will not. There are other similar reasons that could be advanced for why these general powers are needed.

My question to the Minister is: please can we have an update on whether the Government will support this general power for integrated transport executives? If the Government do not feel able to support that currently, perhaps the Minister can spell out why she believes that the powers of those transport authorities are sufficient as they stand. The detail of the clause would need some tidying up if we returned to it on Report, but I hope that we could do that with the assistance of the Government. I beg to move.

[Lord Shipley]

My Lords, I support the amendment. It is important that we understand the important role that ITAs and PTEs have in those metropolitan areas. I come from one of those areas. We have always had joint board arrangements, of which fire and rescue has been one, and there have been others. The ITA, and the PTE as part of the ITA, needs to have similar powers at least to fire and rescue authorities, although it is better to have a complete power of general competence. Perhaps I may give an example. The Government are keen to have smart-card operations across the country by 2014. That is being led by PTEs in the areas where PTEs have been directly financed. However, three councils—Nottingham, Leicester and Bristol—do not have PTEs, although they are financed for smart-card ticketing and supported by the PTEs from those other urban areas. Unless the Bill is amended those PTEs will not have a power of general competence, whereas the other areas will, as will those three councils. I think that there will be some complications in procurement policy unless that issue is addressed. It will be interesting to hear the Minister’s views on the situation because, as things stand, there appears to be an anomaly.

[Lord True]

My Lords, it could be that my attention wandered a little, in which case I apologise to the noble Lord. Looking at his amendment, it appears to me that a number of the powers conferred on the Secretary of State by this amendment are precisely the powers which the noble Lord was arguing earlier should be removed or struck down in relation to local authorities. Perhaps the noble Lord could reassure me where the party opposite is because new Section 98C is a twin of Clause 5, which we were discussing earlier, and new Section 98D is a twin of Clause 7, which we were also discussing earlier. Perhaps the noble Lord would explain where the party opposite lies in relation to local authorities and ITAs.