This is the original version (as it was originally made). This item of legislation is currently only available in its original format.
(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations make provision about the application of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (“TUPE”) to employees of bus operators who are affected by the making of a franchising scheme or an enhanced partnership scheme.
A franchising scheme is a scheme made under the Transport Act 2000 (“the Act”) under which an authority identifies the local services that it considers appropriate to be provided in an area under a local service contract. A local service contract is an agreement where the franchising authority grants an exclusive right to operate the local services to another person in exchange for an undertaking to provide the local services on such terms as may be specified in the agreement.
An enhanced partnership scheme is a scheme made under the Act under which an authority specifies the area to which the scheme relates, and imposes requirements in relation to local services by specifying them in the scheme.
The effect of making a franchising scheme or an enhanced partnership scheme may be that certain operators of local services would have to cease providing services. Sections 123X and 138S of the Act provide for TUPE to apply so that employees transfer to a new employer in these circumstances. These Regulations supplement the provisions in TUPE by making specific provisions relevant to franchising schemes or enhanced partnership schemes.
Regulation 3 defines the meaning of “principally connected” for the purposes of sections 123X(4) and 138S(4) of the Act. The employment of a person is principally connected if all parties agree that it is following the consultation process. If no agreement is made, the employment of a person is treated as principally connected if the person spends, on average, at least half of their working time in activities connected wholly or mainly with the provision of services affected by the making of the scheme.
Regulation 4 defines the meaning of “relevant information” for the purposes of these Regulations.
Regulation 5 enables an authority to request relevant information from bus operators after the scheme has been made. If an authority makes a request it must contain all the required information such as a date which the operator must respond by, which must be no later than 21 days from the date the request was issued. If the operator considers that the request does not contain sufficient information to respond to the request it may request further clarification.
Regulation 6 provides obligations for relevant operators to provide local authorities with information they have requested within specified time periods and in certain circumstances, to update the local authority if that information subsequently changes. The regulation also provides the process that will apply where the operator is unable to fully comply with such a request.
Regulation 7 requires relevant authorities to consult employee representatives and operators about the proposed allocation arrangements. Once the consultation ends, the authorities must publish the details of the allocation arrangements.
Regulation 8 makes separate provision for a situation in which an operator ceases providing affected local services before the coming into force of the relevant local service contract or awarded contract. In this situation, the authority may propose to procure a replacement operator at short notice to ensure that services continue to be provided. Sections 123X(2) and 138S(2) of the Act provide for TUPE to apply to employees who transfer to a replacement operator as a result. This regulation requires the authority to consult on the revised allocation arrangements which it proposes to apply to the transfer of employees in this situation, and to publish the revised allocation arrangements before either issuing invitations to tender for the contract to operate replacement services, or entering into the agreement in circumstances other than accepting a tender.
A full impact assessment has not been published for these Regulations. However an assessment has been made of the impact of the Bus Services Act 2017. Copies of that impact assessment may be obtained from the Buses and Taxis Division, Department for Transport, 2/12 Great Minster House, 33 Horseferry Road, London SW1P 4DR or from the Bus Services Act page on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bus-services-bill-impact-assessments.
An Explanatory Memorandum is published alongside this instrument on www.legislation.gov.uk.
All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. This site additionally contains content derived from EUR-Lex, reused under the terms of the Commission Decision 2011/833/EU on the reuse of documents from the EU institutions. For more information see the EUR-Lex public statement on re-use.
