Competition guidance for the bus sector

23 July 2008

The competition guidance relates to the Local Transport Bill, which was introduced in the House of Lords on 7 November 2007 as amended in Public Bill committee, printed in May 2008 under reference 'Bill 106'.

Part 3 of the Local Transport Bill makes a number of important amendments to the provisions on quality partnership schemes and quality contracts schemes in Part 2 of the Transport Act 2000, and to the competition test in Schedule 10 to that Act as well as to certain voluntary agreements relating to buses.

The Department for Transport has also published draft guidance to inform the Parliamentary debates and will be carrying out its own formal consultation process.

The guidance is set out in five volumes:

Volume 1: Introduction
Volume 2: Voluntary Agreements
Volume 3: Quality Partnership Schemes
Volume 4: Quality Contracts
Volume 5: Competition Guidance

Volumes 1 - 4 of the guidance can be found on the Department for Transport website.

The Office of Fair Trading has a role in providing guidance on competition legislation. It has, therefore, worked with the Department for Transport, to produce Volume 5 of the guidance which considers the application of competition law to bus partnership agreements, both statutory and voluntary.

Download the consultation version of the competition guidance (pdf 407 kb).

This is an update and revised version of the competition guidance that was first published on the Department for Transports website in December 2007 to help inform the Parliamentary debate.

Any comments you have on the competition guidance should be submitted by 5pm on Friday 17 October 2008, and addressed to:

Darren Eade
Office of Fair Trading
Fleetbank House
2-6 Salisbury Square
London EC4Y 8JX
 
Telephone: +44 (020) 7211 8534
Email: darren.eade@oft.gsi.gov.uk

Any queries or comments on Volumes 1 - 4 of the guidance should be addressed to:

Buses and Taxis Division
Department for Transport
Zone 3/11
Great Minster House
London
SW1P 4DR

Data use statement for responses

Please note that the OFT may choose to refer to comments received in response to this consultation in future publications. If you consider any document or information that you provide to the OFT to be confidential, that document or information should be placed in a separate annex and marked 'confidential information' at the time that it is provided to us. At the same time, you should also provide a written explanation as to why the document or information should be treated as confidential. All information received is subject to Part 9 of the Enterprise Act 2002.

If you are replying by email, these provisions override any standard confidentiality disclaimer that is generated by your organisation's IT system.

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