The Public Service Vehicles (Accessible Information) Regulations 2023

Application

4.—(1) Subject to the remainder of this regulation, these Regulations apply in respect of local services.

(2) These Regulations do not apply in respect of—

(a) a small bus used to provide local services;

(b) a vehicle which was first used to provide local services before 1 January 1973;

(c) an excursion or tour;

(d) a closed door home to school service;

(e) a long distance service;

(f) any part of a local service where the service is operating as a demand responsive transport service;

(g) a community bus service other than where such service is provided using a vehicle which is first used to provide such a service on or after 1st October 2023.

(3) These regulations apply from the dates specified in regulation 5.

(4) In this regulation—

(a) “closed door home to school service” means a service which is for the carriage of eligible passengers to and from an educational establishment and which can only be used by eligible passengers;

(b) “demand responsive transport service” means a service, or part of service, where the route is not fixed but instead is determined on a case by case basis with reference to requests from passengers or prospective passengers;

(c) “educational establishment” means an institution for providing primary education, secondary education or further education, where “primary education”, “secondary education” and “further education” have the meanings given to them in section 2 of the Education Act 1996(1);

(d) “eligible passengers” means a person who is travelling to or from an educational establishment for the purposes of—

(i) receiving education or training at the educational establishment;

(ii) supervising or escorting a person who is receiving education or training at the educational establishment;

(iii) providing education or training at the educational establishment;

(e) “excursion or tour” has the meaning given in section 137(1) of the Transport Act 1985(2);

(f) “long distance service” means a service—

(i) consisting of one or more local parts and one or more non-local parts; and

(ii) with respect to which the distance covered by the non-local parts is more than half of the total distance; and

(g) “small bus” means a vehicle which is adapted to carry less than seventeen passengers.

(5) For the purposes of paragraph 4(f) of this regulation—

(a) “local part” means a part of a service which is not a non-local part;

(b) “non-local part” means a part of a service with respect to which, except in an emergency, one or both of the conditions in section 2(2) of the Transport Act 1985 are met with respect to every passenger using the service;

(c) the distance covered by the non-local parts is calculated by adding together the distance covered by all of the non-local parts forming part of the service, such distance for each non-local part to be measured in a straight line from the start of the route for that non-local part to the end of the route for that non-local part;

(d) the total distance is the total of the distances covered by the local parts and the non-local parts; and

(e) the distance covered by the local parts is calculated by adding together the distance covered by all of the local parts forming part of the service, such distance for each local part to be measured using the scheduled route of that local part.

(1)

1996 c. 56. Section 2(1) was substituted by the Education Act 2002 (c. 32), section 156, and section 2 was amended by the Learning and Skills Act 2000 (c. 21), section 110(1) and by the Education Act 2002, section 177(1) to (3), schedule 7, paragraph 6(2), schedule 21, paragraph 33 and schedule 22, part 3.

(2)

There are amendments to section 137(1), but none is relevant.