Local bus services
Quality partnership and quality contracts schemes
7.Part 2 of the Transport Act 2000 (“the TA 2000”) includes provisions relating to “quality partnership schemes” and “quality contracts schemes”. A quality partnership scheme is a scheme under which:
a local authority provides specified facilities in their area: such facilities might include bus lanes or other bus priority measures, or enhanced facilities for passengers at bus stops and bus stations; and
operators of local services who wish to use such facilities must undertake to provide those services to a particular standard when using those facilities.
8.A quality contracts scheme is a scheme under which:
a local authority determines what local services should be provided in the area to which the scheme relates and any additional facilities or services which should be provided in that area; and
local services may be provided in that area only in accordance with quality contracts entered into by a local authority with a bus operator following a competitive tendering process, unless they are explicitly excluded from the scheme.
A scheme may comprise one or more contracts relating to services that form part of the overall scheme.
9.A quality contracts scheme therefore has the effect of closing down the deregulated market established under the TA 1985 in the area to which it applies, for the duration of the scheme.