Speeches by Mayer.

“I also want to ask about the relationships between different types of councils as well. We have situations where one council is the transport authority and another council is the highways authority. This is going to become an increasingly bigger problem as more MCAs are rolled out. What role can enhanced partnerships p…”

“Our report highlights that the understanding of disabilities has changed since many of the relevant laws and regulations were put in place. This issue is about not only ramps for wheelchairs, for example, but conditions such as neurodiversity. Does my hon. Friend agree that making transport more accessible for those wi…”

“Are you aware of any particular problems around new-build estates? Clearly, there is a huge volume of different utilities needing to get into those places, both digging up existing roads and, obviously, non-adopted roads. I was wondering, first of all, if there were any different steps you took when there is a new-buil…”

“Do you want to carry on, Caroline?”

“Building on that, Greater Manchester, for example, in the first tranche of their Bee network, did not include DRT in that first phase. If you look at the business cases for other potential franchised areas, again there does not seem to be much mention of DRT. Why do you think that is happening, given that we appear to …”

“We are coming to that.”

“There is no mention of DRT, and very little mention of community transport, in the Government’s buses Bill. What do you think the Government’s view is of the role of these types of services?”

“Looking at funding, we have had mention before of BSIP and BSOG. Thinking about funding that was basically created with the thought of fixed routes with normal timetabled bus services but which have also been used for DRT, how effective have those funding streams been in supporting the growth of DRT?”

“On concessionary passes, do you think that they should be accepted as standard on DRT and community transport services, and what would the impact of that be?”

“I promised that we would go back to VAT, so this is a special one for Max. How do the current VAT rules impact the viability of DRT services?”

“As the Minister has just alluded to, the scheme is called SFI ’24. Might there be a clue in the title that makes this less surprising than people are saying, given that it is now 2025?”

“Absolutely. Do you think there is a need for a distinct regulatory framework for DRT? At the moment, basically, you are suggesting it is using either bus or taxi legislation because it has never been thought about on its own.”

“Throughout this we have been talking about DRT. It sounds expensive. You have 95% of councils saying that DRT schemes are operating at a loss. Is that because of the way we are using DRT, or is it inherently expensive? A lot of this conversation has been about people who have, or would use, concessionary bus passes. We…”

“That is my point. Why are they only in places where traditional bus services aren’t viable? Are there not examples of DRT in places where traditional bus services are viable—where there are more passengers—and then presumably they would be less expensive to run?”

“I thank my hon. Friend for giving way on that point about councils. In my area, Central Bedfordshire Council has just decided to remove all of its safer neighbourhood officers. The chief constable has said that there will be increased risks to the public because of that. These are uniformed people who go around our str…”

“I have an example from my own constituency. A road called Bedford Road appears to be repeatedly dug up. One of the reasons I am constantly given is that it is because of the new-build estates in the vicinity. In fact, there are four different housing developments going on at the moment. I am interested to know if you t…”

“You have all talked about the co-ordinating role of local authorities. Do you think that local authorities have enough powers to manage the effect of street works?”

“Carrying on with the theme of buses, I have another question for Keith, please. You have obviously spoken about this already to some extent. Could you give us a bit more of a flavour of how much bus services are impacted by poorly planned or managed street works?”

“We are all aware of instances where the same stretch of road or pavement seems to be dug up repeatedly by different companies over a short period of time. Why does that happen, simply, and how do you think it could be avoided?”

“There was one other piece of evidence, where we were told that one of the issues was that different utility companies had different forms of insurance and that was a barrier to collaboration. Is that something you have come across in your experience?”