Transport (Scotland) Act 2001

36 Agreements providing for service subsidies

(1) Part V of the 1985 Act (expenditure on public passenger transport services) shall be amended as follows.

(2) In section 89 (obligation to invite tenders for subsidised services)—

(a) in subsection (7), after “section” there shall be inserted “for the provision of services other than those mentioned in subsection (9) below”; and

(b) after subsection (8) there shall be inserted—

“(9) An authority issuing an invitation to tender under this section for the provision of any service for the carriage of passengers by road which requires, for the purposes of Part IV of this Act, a PSV operator’s licence, shall, in determining whether to accept a tender submitted in response to the invitation or which (if any) of several such tenders to accept, have regard in particular to—

(a) a combination of economy, efficiency and effectiveness;

(b) the implementation of—

(i) their local transport strategy; and

(ii) the general policies formulated by them under section 63(2)(b) of this Act or section 9A(1) of the Transport Act 1968 (c. 73), as the case may be; and

(c) the reduction or limitation of traffic congestion, noise or air pollution.

(10) In subsection (9)(b)(i) above, “local transport strategy” has the meaning given by section 82(1) of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001 (asp 2).”.

(3) In section 90(3) (duty of authority to publish reasons for considering that payment of subsidies to secure service in accordance with accepted tender is conducive to achieving most effective and economic application of funds), for the words from “is conducive” to the end there shall be substituted “accords with section 89(7), or as the case may be (9), of this Act.”.

(4) In section 92(1) (authorities subsidising public passenger transport services not to inhibit competition between persons providing or seeking to provide such services in their area), for the words from “so” to “provide” there shall be substituted “have regard to the interests of the public and of persons providing”.