The Mandatory Travel Concessions (Reimbursement Arrangements) (Wales) Regulations 2001

Standard method of determining number of, and fares value of, journeys

6.—(1) Subject to paragraph (6) of this regulation, in relation to each scheme, the authority must adopt a standard method to be used, subject to regulation 4, in determining—

(a) the total number of the journeys made by persons entitled to be provided with mandatory travel concessions on the services of operators; and

(b) the fares value to be attributed to those journeys.

(2) The standard method must provide for the authority to take into account any data which shows that the method by which such data was derived is more accurate than the standard method.

(3) Where the standard method does not provide for the recording of all such journeys as are mentioned in paragraph (1) of this regulation, that method may provide for—

(a) the calculation of figures for the total number and fares value of those journeys by any means or combination of means which appears to the authority to be reasonable; and

(b) if necessary, the apportionment of that number and fares value between all operators to whom reimbursement payments fall to be made by the authority under section 149(1) of the Act.

(4) Where the amounts of reimbursement payments are estimated or calculated otherwise than by reference to a standard method which provides for the recording of all the journeys mentioned in paragraph (1)(a) of this regulation, the estimates or calculations (but not the standard method) must be adjusted if the information upon which they were based is shown to be inaccurate in any material respect.

(5) An authority or an operator who have reason to believe that the standard method used by them is inappropriate in relation to any particular operator may, at their own cost and expense, make provision for a more accurate calculation of the total number and fares value of journeys in respect of that operator.

(6) If , in the opinion of an authority, application of the standard method would, by reason of the nature or extent of the services on which mandatory travel concessions are provided by a particular operator or operators, impose an unreasonable administrative or financial burden on such operator or operators, reimbursement arrangements relating to them may include an exemption from the standard method in any case where the authority and the operator so agree and each of the following conditions are satisfied—

(a) the authority have established and published criteria by reference to which the entitlement of an operator to exemption from the standard method is to be assessed;

(b) the National Assembly has given written approval to those criteria;

(c) the operator or operators to which the exemption is applied satisfy those criteria;

(d) the exemption is applied by the authority to all other operators entitled to reimbursement payments from that authority who appear to the authority to satisfy those criteria and who wish to take advantage of the exemption.