BUS REREGULATION

That this House congratulates the Secretary of State for Transport for setting out plans in Putting Passengers First which seek to ensure that `the progress London has made on buses can and should be replicated in the big conurbations in the rest of England', and that the franchising of bus services should become a `more realistic option' for Passenger Transport Executives and other local authorities; and calls on the Secretary of State to ensure that the competition authorities are no longer able to frustrate sensible co-ordination and integration of bus services, and that, given the decline in bus services in the conurbations, that the process by which passenger transport executives can seek to introduce the franchising of bus services is transparent, proportionate and expeditious.