Road Transport (International Passenger Services) (Amendment) Regulations 2024

Considered in Grand Committee

16:51:00

Moved by

That the Grand Committee do consider the Road Transport (International Passenger Services) (Amendment) Regulations 2024. Relevant document: 7th Report from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee

My Lords, these draft regulations will amend existing domestic legislation to underpin the UK’s intended ratification of the regular and special regular protocol—I shall refer to it in future as the RSR protocol—to the Interbus agreement. The Interbus agreement is a multilateral agreement that outlines the market access rules for bus and coach operators running occasional services, for example one-off holiday coach tours to, from, through and between its contracting parties. The UK became a contracting party to the Interbus agreement in 2021, having previously been a member when part of the European Union. In addition to the UK and the European Union, there are nine other Interbus contracting parties, including Ukraine, Moldova, Turkey and certain Balkan states. The regular and special regular protocol—the RSR protocol—extends the Interbus agreement to cover both regular and special regular coach services. Regular services are timetabled routes while special regular services are timetabled routes for a specific category of people, for example school buses. I will refer to these types of journeys as RSR services. The RSR protocol was laid before Parliament as a Command Paper on 24 October this year. The International Agreements Committee welcomed the ratification of the protocol in its report of 20 November 2024. These amending regulations are necessary to replace the temporary market access arrangements for RSR services between the UK and the European Union, which currently sit within the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, or TCA. These will expire after 31 March 2025 as a consequence of the protocol having come into force for the EU, Moldova, and Bosnia and Herzegovina on 1 October 2024. If this instrument is approved, the UK will be able to ratify the RSR protocol in early 2025 in order to bring it into effect for the UK from 1 April 2025. Without ratification, UK bus and coach operators would lose the right to run RSR services to the EU. They would also not be able to benefit from the right to run RSR services to other Interbus contracting parties that have ratified the protocol. The instrument and our ratification of the RSR protocol will thereby allow UK coach and bus operators to continue to run RSR services to the EU without interruption. The key difference is that the treaty basis of these UK-EU arrangements will shift from the TCA to the RSR protocol. That requires consequential changes to UK legislation, which the instrument will implement. Ratification of the protocol will also enable UK operators to run RSR services to other non-EU Interbus countries that have also ratified the RSR protocol, the number of which is expected to grow over time. The amendments will apply to legislation in both Great Britain and Northern Ireland to enable operators from all parts of the United Kingdom to continue running these coach and bus services internationally. The instrument includes amendments to the journey authorisation process for RSR services, as well as to offences to enable enforcement by the relevant authorities. This instrument will revoke certain assimilated EU regulations from UK law, aligning entitlements of EU passenger service operators in the UK with those of UK operators in the EU. This instrument does not, however, affect the four additional rights secured under the TCA, including, most notably, rights that enable cross-border bus and coach services on the island of Ireland, which will continue. The following provisions will remain even when the temporary TCA provisions expire. First, occasional services will still be permitted where they transit through one party to reach a non-contracting party to Interbus. An example of this is UK coaches that transit through the EU to reach Switzerland. Secondly, RSR services will still be permitted to start in one party and transit through the other party to reach a different part of the first party—in this case, Great Britain to Ireland to Northern Ireland. Two important enduring provisions specifically relating to the island of Ireland will also remain. These will allow operators in one party to operate occasional services on the island of Ireland, picking up and setting down passengers on the territory of the other party. An example of this is a UK operator running a coach tour picking up and setting down passengers in either Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland. This instrument will also allow an operator from one party to undertake cabotage in the other party for RSR services running between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Approval of this instrument will enable the UK’s bus and coach operators to continue their international RSR journeys as they currently do, without a gap in market access provisions. Such a gap would be particularly sensitive on the island of Ireland. If approved, this legislation will ensure that the UK meets the required timescales outlined in the TCA, thus contributing to our positive and co-operative relationship with the European Union. I turn to a summary of the instrument’s content. There are five key changes resulting from this instrument to note. First, it updates Great Britain and Northern Ireland law by including new references to the RSR protocol. These will replace references to the temporary RSR provisions in the TCA from 1 April 2025. Secondly, the instrument updates existing references so that the other market access provisions of both the Interbus agreement and the TCA concerning international bus and coach services are retained. This will ensure that the range of additional access rights between the UK and EU will remain in effect. These include the right for occasional services to transit the EU to reach non-Interbus contracting parties, such as Switzerland, and, most notably, the special arrangements for cross-border services on the island of Ireland. Thirdly, the instrument includes updates to transfer the treaty basis from the TCA to the RSR protocol for the authorisation process and documentation that operators must hold to run RSR services. This will allow current processes to continue once the RSR protocol comes into force. Fourthly, the instrument updates existing offences and creates new ones to align them with the requirements of the market access arrangements of the RSR protocol. This will enable enforcement agencies in Great Britain and Northern Ireland to continue to take action against non-compliant international operators that breach these market access requirements when driving in the UK. Enforcement action includes the issuing of fixed penalty notices. In more serious cases, operators may be prosecuted and subject to fines if found guilty. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency has confirmed that it issued 32 on the spot fines to non-GB passenger service operators in 2023, including EU operators. These penalties will have been issued for enforceable offences, such as breaches of the drivers’ hours rules. Finally, the instrument revokes assimilated EU Regulation (EC) 1073/2009 and assimilated Commission Regulation (EU) 361/2014 from UK law. These regulations governed the market access arrangements for international public transport services in the UK while the UK was part of the European Union. The practical effect of revoking these assimilated regulations is the removal of existing passenger transport cabotage rights for EU operators. This means that, from 1 April 2025, EU operators will no longer be able to use EU-registered vehicles to run coach services that both start and end in the United Kingdom. This will level the playing field for UK passenger transport operators, who are not able to undertake cabotage in the EU. It may also create opportunities for UK operators to provide such services domestically. However, the special provisions for the island of Ireland, including cabotage rights for passenger transport, provided under the TCA will not be impacted.

17:00:00

This instrument does not change any of the standards that our UK operators and drivers must meet when working on international routes. In particular, it has no bearing on the technical and safety vehicle standards that currently apply, nor on driver working time limits and qualifications required. The Interbus agreement requires contracting parties to apply the European agreement concerning the work of crews on vehicles engaged in international road transport—the AETR rules—or historical versions of EU legislation. Should any changes to these or other standards be proposed, they would first need to be considered by each Interbus contracting party and agreed unanimously. Only then, if agreed, would we seek to update domestic legislation.

On wider scrutiny, the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments considered this instrument on 4 November and concluded that it did not need to be reported. The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee raised no specific concerns about this instrument, although it noted it as an instrument of interest. The committee stated that, although this SI “maintains the status quo”, it makes two changes: first, the right to transit through the EU to reach non-EU countries that have ratified the protocol and, secondly, the removal of cabotage rights for EU operators within the UK.

In conclusion, if approved, the instrument will enable the UK to ratify the RSR protocol in early 2025. This will mean a seamless continuation of the UK’s international market access provisions for outbound and inbound passenger services after 31 March 2025, when the temporary TCA provisions expire. This is particularly important to ensure that cross-border coach services on the island of Ireland can continue. It will do this by putting in place the domestic legislative requirements needed to allow the treaty basis of these RSR market access arrangements to shift from the TCA to the RSR protocol when the temporary TCA provisions expire. Existing references to the Interbus agreement and TCA will also remain in place.

The instrument will revoke assimilated EU legislation, removing passenger transport cabotage rights for EU operators in the UK, which will level the playing field for UK operators. I hope noble Lords will join me in supporting these measures, and I beg to move.

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his detailed introduction. There is a long background of negotiations on this legislation. The Explanatory Memorandum says that this SI “will in effect maintain the status quo”— that status quo was very hard fought in the days after the Brexit referendum. We have spent many hours in this Room debating the fallout from the detail of that situation. Paragraph 5.4 of the Explanatory Memorandum says that the instrument will “update the UK’s domestic … legislation by removing assimilated EU legislation” on road passenger transport. Of course, UK bus and coach operators will continue to operate within the context of the framework of EU and international legislation generally. As the Minister said, there are three types of commercial bus and coach services: the occasional, the regular and the special regular services carrying specified categories of passengers, such as pupils. It is good news that there is now a right for bus and coach operators to transport passengers through the EU to Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Are new signatories to the agreement likely to come on stream in future? This is a fairly limited market as it stands. The key change in this SI relates to cabotage—the carrying of passengers in the UK by foreign-based operators. Paragraph 5.10 of the EM explains that international operators participating in the UK “are currently permitted to undertake cabotage” under assimilated EU law. This right is being removed. My second question is: how many services, roughly, are affected by this? How common is the operation of cabotage by EU operators? I assume that the answer is that it is not very common, because one thing that slightly surprised me was the fact that there was no consultation on this SI. I declare my interest as a member of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. Is this an important new right, or is it a marginal benefit? As always, it is in Northern Ireland that the really intractable questions arise, following the Brexit vote and its implications. I am pleased that Northern Ireland operators will be able to operate cabotage within the island of Ireland, and vice versa. That is the only logical thing to do. I recall that, a few years ago, when I was a member of the EU sub-committee, we took evidence from a bus operator—although not in relation to this specific issue, of course. The bus operator said that his scheduled service crossed the border 13 times from one end to the other. The proposal at the time, from some enthusiastic Brexiteers, was that Britain should flex its muscles post Brexit by changing our clocks in the spring and the autumn on a different day from the EU. Businesses in Northern Ireland, and indeed in the Republic of Ireland, were very exercised by the practical issues, and the bus operator pointed out how impossible his timetable would become if we operated in a different way with time zones. This is possibly not an SI of the greatest significance, but it is nevertheless one to be welcomed because of the common-sense approach in relation to Northern Ireland and the fact that British operators will now be in the same commercial position as EU operators for cabotage.

My Lords, I have a question for the Minister about this generally positive instrument. It is about electronic travel authorisation. If a bus comes from Great Britain to the Republic and into Northern Ireland, electronic travel authorisation will be required, as I read it. Can the Minister confirm this? Many of us see this as a disincentive and an obstacle to tourism. People visiting Ireland from outside the EU and from outside Ireland need, as I read it, electronic travel authorisation to come into Northern Ireland—that is effectively a visa. Can the Minister confirm that? If he does not have the information available, he can write.

My Lords, I thank the Minister for arranging a helpful briefing with his officials this morning. This is, I imagine, one of those very rare occasions where I find myself more in sympathy with the proposal from the Minister than with the speech from the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, who seemed determined to reopen all sorts of arguments about Brexit and who did what when. This is, in my view, a sensible and necessary disentangling of our laws from the pernicious effect of EU legislation, so that we stand on our own feet with our own laws, making international agreements—such as the Interbus agreement—and adhering to, and adopting, in this case, its protocol relating to these coach services, which the Minister spelled out in considerable detail, with great clarity for such a complex subject. The impact assessment for this instrument says that it has no impact and that that is the reason for not having any consultation. I welcome that; we should have more laws that have no impact. Most of the laws that set out to have an impact seem to have only perverse impacts and do not achieve what they are intended to at all. This one is deliberately intended to have no practical impact—with one exception that I will return to—because it seeks to maintain the existing situation but translate it into domestic law. As I say, this is not only desirable but necessary because the provisions of the TCA under which it operates will effectively expire at the end of March next year, as the other foreign parties join the Interbus agreement. So, on the whole, we welcome this instrument and are happy to support it. On cabotage, it is of course possible—as the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, said—that there is some diminution of immunity to British travellers as a result of that. The Minister has been asked a question, and I certainly do not know the answer to it, but he may. It is possible that certain services currently operating start in, say, Paris and go to Edinburgh, stopping along the route, collecting passengers and dropping them off. Those services will no longer be able to operate in that fashion—picking passengers up and dropping them off along the route—once these provisions come into effect, which in practice will be on 1 April next year. As I say, that could constitute a diminution in services. However, it is interesting that the noble Baroness focused on that, because the counterpart to that is that British coach operators will not have those cabotage rights in the European Union. I would have thought and hoped that the Liberal Democrats would be more interested in promoting the interests of British coach operators travelling abroad than protecting the business model of foreign coach operators operating in the UK. However, that appears not to be the case: her focus is on the latter—she did not mention the others at all.

17:15:00

The other point I wanted to ask about relates to enforcement. The DVSA is charged with enforcing the provisions of this statutory instrument in operation. The Minister was good enough to give some information on the number of fines that have been issued. These on-the-spot fines are like fixed-penalty notices; they are accompanied by a fine that you can get back if you dispute the fixed-penalty notice—but they are, in effect, on-the-spot fines. If I heard him correctly, the number that the Minister gave was 32 fines in the last year, which seems potentially on the low side. He did not give the number of checks—that is, I did not hear him say how many checks were required to result in that number of 32. I am not demanding large numbers of stops on the road and coaches constantly being pulled over. I only ask that the Minister considers, especially given the new prohibition on cabotage, whether the enforcement resources dedicated to the implementation of this instrument are adequate. If he is confident that they are and can say that to the Committee, that would be helpful. Otherwise, we are happy in all respects to support this instrument as it goes forward.

First, I thank noble Lords and the noble Baroness for their contributions. I will attempt to deal, either now or subsequently, with each of their points. The noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, said that it was good news on the ability to travel to states beyond the European Union and asked whether there are more examples. The only information that I have is that Ukraine indicated in December 2023, at the last committee meeting of the Interbus contracting parties, that it was preparing to ratify the protocol. Of course, one hopes that the clarity these new regulations give will encourage other parties beyond the European Union’s geography to be interested. The department has no information about the current level of EU operators using cabotage in the UK, which will cease, if these regulations are accepted, from 31 March 2025. I suspect that, in non-quantifiable terms, it does not occur very often but, as I know from my past life, this matter has been a subject of some concern for UK coach operators in terms of the imbalance of opportunity. I will come back to that. The noble Baroness mentioned consultation. The Confederation of Passenger Transport, which is the bus and coach operators’ trade body in the UK, is aware of this matter and has no comments on it, which I think is satisfactory. Officials tell me that they will continue to be in touch with the CPT, as we call it, in order that they are fully abreast of what is going on. Of course, the noble Baroness is absolutely right that the principal effect is in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. I can well believe that there are occasional, regular or special regular services that cross the border numerous times, because of the border’s nature. The noble Lord, Lord Empey, asked about electronic travel authorisation. I will write to him on that subject so that we are absolutely clear on whether it will still be required. I was delighted to discover that the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, has some sympathy with me—long may that continue. He mentioned the impact assessment. He is right that the instrument will have little impact, but it is important that UK bus and coach operators have some certainty about their future. As I just pointed out, the forthcoming ban on performing cabotage in the UK being passed to EU operators is a matter that has exercised some of their minds. They will welcome this instrument; there is no doubt about that. There might be some dislocation to UK passengers as a consequence, but I say to UK operators that, if they welcome the correction of this imbalance, it will be up to them to make the effort to capture some of the traffic that might otherwise be lost. Lastly, the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, referred to enforcement. I did not say how many checks the 32 on-the-spot fines applied to because I did not know at the time I read the speech. I will look at that further and ask officials to speak to the DVSA so that it and its vehicle inspectors can take an informed view about this change and look out for these operators. It is not hard to understand that there are some obvious places to do that. These operators will enter the country through ports, and I think that enforcement operations are thoughtfully devised so that inspectors catch the right people, at the right time, in the right way. The approval of this statutory instrument will ensure that the UK’s bus and coach operators can continue running services internationally, as they currently do and, most importantly, without any disruption or interruption from 1 April 2025. It will enable the UK to fulfil its international obligations under the TCA by enabling the UK’s ratification of the RSR protocol, which will contribute to our co-operative and close relationship with the European Union. The statutory instrument is, of course, required now to ensure that we can ratify the RSR protocol in January 2025 to bring it into force so that it is ready after the temporary provisions of the TCA expire on 31 March 2025.

Motion agreed.