I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Road Transport (International Passenger Services) (Amendment) Regulations 2024.
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair this afternoon, Mr Efford. The draft instrument will amend domestic legislation in Great Britain and Northern Ireland to underpin the UK’s intended ratification of the RSR—regular and special regular—protocol to the Interbus agreement.
The UK’s international market access rights for bus and coach services are currently governed by two agreements: the Interbus agreement and the road passenger transport chapter of the UK-EU trade and co-operation agreement. The Interbus agreement covers occasional bus and coach services, such as 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 as part of the EU. In addition to the UK and the EU, there are nine other contracting parties to Interbus, including Moldova, Ukraine and certain Balkan states. The RSR protocol extends the Interbus agreement to cover regular and special regular services. Regular services are timetabled services; special regular services are timetabled services for certain groups such as schoolchildren.
During the TCA negotiations, the UK and the EU agreed temporary arrangements for RSR services within the TCA to bridge the gap until the RSR protocol came into force. The RSR protocol entered into force on 1 October 2024, following ratification by the EU, Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina. This means that the temporary RSR provisions in the TCA will fall away after 31 March 2025. Effectively, the clock is ticking.
The draft instrument will allow the continuation of RSR services between the UK and the EU from 1 April 2025 by moving the treaty basis from the TCA to the RSR protocol within domestic legislation. The UK cannot ratify the RSR protocol without that legislation in place. If we fail to do so, in January 2025 the temporary measures in the TCA will lapse, and the RSR services between the UK and the EU will not be able to continue after 31 March. Obviously we do not want that; it would be of particular concern for cross-border journeys on the island of Ireland. That is why we are acting now to introduce this legislation.
I turn to the content of the draft instrument. There are five key changes to note. First, it will amend GB and Northern Ireland law by including references to the RSR protocol. These will replace references to the temporary RSR provisions in the TCA from 1 April 2025.
Secondly, the draft instrument will update 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 the EU 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 draft instrument includes updates to transfer the treaty basis from the TCA to the RSR protocol, for the authorisation process and the 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 draft instrument will update existing offences and create new ones to align them with the requirements 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 who breach the market access requirements when driving in the UK.
Finally, the draft instrument will revoke the assimilated EU regulations that governed market access arrangements for international passenger transport services in the UK while it was part of the EU. The practical effect of revoking those assimilated regulations will be 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 UK. That will level the playing field for UK operators who are not able to undertake cabotage in the EU, and it might create opportunities for UK operators to provide such services domestically. It will not, however, affect the special provisions for the island of Ireland, including cabotage rights for passenger transport provided under the TCA.
In conclusion, the draft instrument will update Great Britain and Northern Ireland’s domestic legislation to ensure that the UK’s bus and coach operators can continue running services internationally, as they currently do, without disruption from 1 April 2025. If approved, it will also support the UK in fulfilling its international obligations under the TCA by enabling the UK’s ratification of the RSR protocol. The instrument is required now to ensure that we can ratify the RSR protocol in January to bring it into force after the temporary provisions of the TCA expire on 31 March 2025. I commend the instrument to the Committee.