Transport Act 1985

137 General interpretation. E+W

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—

• “the 1962 Act” means the M1 Transport Act 1962;

• “the 1972 Act” means the M2 Local Government Act 1972;

• “the 1968 Act” means the M3 Transport Act 1968;

• “the 1981 Act” means the M4 Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981;

• “body” means a body of persons, whether corporate or unincorporate;

• “bus service condition” has the meaning given by section 119(4) of this Act;

• “bus substitution service” has the meaning given by section 119(1) of this Act;

• [F1 “council”, in relation to Scotland, means a council constituted under section 2 of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994;]

• “employees’ share scheme” means a scheme for encouraging or facilitating the holding of shares or debentures in a company by or for the benefit of—

  (a)

  the bona fide employees or former employees of the company or of a subsidiary of the company; or

  (b)

  the wives, husbands, widows, widowers or children or step-children under the age of eighteen of such employees or former employees;

• M5 “equity share capital” [F2 has the same meaning as in the Companies Acts (see section 548 of the Companies Act 2006)];

• “excursion or tour” means a service for the carriage of passengers by road at separate fares on which the passengers travel together on a journey, with or without breaks, from one or more places to one or more other places and back;

• “functions” includes powers, duties and obligations;

• “interest” means, in relation to a company’s share capital of any description, a beneficial interest (whether held directly or through nominees or subsidiaries) in that share capital;

• “liability” includes an obligation;

• “local service” has the meaning given by section 2 of this Act;

• “London” means the administrative area of Greater London as for the time being constituted;

• “London local service” has the meaning given by section 34(1) of this Act;

• “pension”, in relation to a person, means a pension, whether contributory or not, of any kind whatsoever payable to or in respect of him, and includes—

  (a)

  a gratuity so payable;

  (b)

  a return of contributions to a pension fund, with or without interest on or any other addition to those contributions; and

  (c)

  any sums payable on or in respect of the death of that person;

• “pension rights” includes, in relation to any person, all forms of right to or eligibility for the present or future payment of a pension, and any expectation of the accruer of a pension under any customary practice, and includes a right of allocation in respect of the present or future payment of a pension;

• “prescribed” means prescribed by regulations;

• “public passenger transport services” has the meaning given by section 63(10)(a) of this Act;

• “the Railways Board” means the British Railways Board established under section 1 of the 1962 Act;

• “regulations” means regulations made by the Secretary of State;

• “securities”, in relation to a body corporate, means any shares, stock, debentures, debenture stock, and any other security of a similar nature, of the body corporate;

• M6 “social services functions” means functions which are social services functions for the purposes of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970 [F3 or the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014];

• M7 “social work functions” means functions which are social work functions for the purposes of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968;

• F4 . . .

• “stopping place” means, in relation to any service or part of a service, a point at which passengers are (or, in the case of a proposed service, are proposed to be) taken up or set down in the course of that service or part;

• “subsidiary” means, in relation to any body corporate, a body corporate which is a subsidiary of the first-mentioned body corporate [F5 within the meaning of section 736 of the Companies Act 1985 as originally enacted (and not as substituted by section 144(1) of the Companies Act 1989);]

• “traffic area” means a traffic area constituted for the purposes of the 1981 Act, and section 80 of that Act shall apply to references in this Act to the Metropolitan Traffic Area;

• F6 . . .

• “wholly-owned subsidiary” means a subsidiary all the securities of which are owned by a body corporate of which it is a subsidiary, or by one or more other wholly-owned subsidiaries of that body, or partly by that body and partly by any wholly-owned subsidiary of that body;

and the expressions listed in subsection (2) below have the same meaning as in the 1981 Act.

(2) Those expressions are—

• “company”;

• “contravention”;

• “fares”;

• “modification”;

• “operator” (in references to the operator of a vehicle);

• “operating centre”;

• “PSV operator’s licence”;

• “public service vehicle”;

• “road”;

• “statutory provision”; and

• “traffic commissioner”.

[F7 (2A) In this Act—

(a) any reference to a county shall be construed in relation to Wales as including a reference to a county borough;

(b) any reference to a county council shall be construed in relation to Wales as including a reference to a county borough council; and

(c) section 17(4) and (5) of the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 (references to counties and districts to be construed generally in relation to Wales as references to counties and county boroughs) shall not apply.]

(3) References in this Act to a vehicle’s being used for carrying passengers for hire or reward shall be read in accordance with section 1(5) of the 1981 Act.

(4) References in this Act to agreements providing for service subsidies shall be read in accordance with section 63(10)(b) of this Act.

(5) References in this Act to [F8 Integrated Transport Authorities, Passenger Transport Authorities and Passenger Transport Executives] and to [F9 integrated transport areas and] passenger transport areas are references respectively to the [F8 Integrated Transport Authorities, Passenger Transport Authorities and Passenger Transport Executives], and to [F9 integrated transport areas and] passenger transport areas, for the purposes of Part II of the 1968 Act.

[F10 (5A) References in this Act to a combined authority are references to a combined authority established under section 103 of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009.]

[F11 (5B) References in this Act to a combined county authority are references to a combined county authority established under section 9(1) of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023.]

(6) References in this Act, in relation to a bus substitution service, to the withdrawal of service shall be read in accordance with section 120(1) of this Act (and references to a withdrawal of service or to withdrawals of service have a corresponding meaning).

(7) For the purposes of this Act the operator of a passenger transport service of any description is the person, or each of the persons, providing the service; and for those purposes the operator of a vehicle being used on a road for the carriage of passengers for hire or reward at separate fares shall be taken to be providing the service provided by means of the vehicle unless [F12 it is proved] that the service is or forms part of a service provided not by himself but by one or more other persons.

(8) For the purposes of this Act an interest in a company’s equity share capital is a controlling interest if it subsists in more than half in nominal value of that capital.

Extent Information

E1 This version extends to England and Wales only. A separate version has been created for Scotland.

Textual Amendments

F1 Words in s. 137(1) inserted (S.) (1.4.1996) by 1996/974, art. 2(1), Sch. 1 Pt. I para. 7(g)

F2 Words in s. 137(1) substituted (1.10.2009) by The Companies Act 2006 (Consequential Amendments, Transitional Provisions and Savings) Order 2009 (S.I. 2009/1941), art. 1(2), Sch. 1 para. 61 (with art. 10)

F3 Words in s. 137(1) inserted (E.W.) (6.4.2016) by The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2016 (S.I. 2016/413), regs. 2(1), 45

F4 S. 137(1): definition repealed (5.11.1993) by 1993 c.50, s. 1(1), Sch. 1 Pt.XIV

F5 Words substituted by Companies Act 1989 (c. 40, SIF 27), s. 144(4), Sch. 18 para. 39

F6 S. 137(1) definition of "trunk road" repealed (S.)(1.11.1991) by New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 (c. 22, SIF 59, 108), s. 168(1)(2), Sch. 8 Pt.IV para. 117(3), Sch. 9; S.I. 1991/2286, art. 2(2), Sch. 2

S. 137(1): definition of "trunk road" repealed (E.W.)(1.11.1991) by New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 (c.22, SIF 59, 108), s. 168(1)(2), Sch. 8, Pt. IV para. 117(3), Sch. 9; S.I. 1991/2288, art. 3, Sch.

F7 S. 137(2A) inserted (1.4.1996) by 1994 c. 19, s. 22(1), Sch. 7 Pt. II para. 39(10) (with ss. 54(5)(7), 55(5), Sch. 17 para. 22(1), 23(2)); S.I. 1996/396, art. 3, Sch. 1

F8 Words in s. 137(5) substituted (E.W.) (9.2.2009) by Local Transport Act 2008 (c. 26), s. 134(4), Sch. 4 para. 40(a); S.I. 2009/107, art. 2(1), Sch. 1 Pt. 1

F9 Words in s. 137(5) inserted (E.W.) (9.2.2009) by Local Transport Act 2008 (c. 26), s. 134(4), Sch. 4 para. 40(b); S.I. 2009/107, art. 2(1), Sch. 1 Pt. 1

F10 S. 137(5A) inserted (17.12.2009) by Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 (c. 20), s. 148(6), Sch. 6 para. 67; S.I. 2009/3318, art. 2(c)

F11 S. 137(5B) inserted (E.W.) (26.12.2023) by Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 (c. 55), s. 255(2)(c), Sch. 4 para. 83 (with s. 247)

F12 Words in s. 137(7) substituted (E.W.) (17.10.2007 for specified purposes, 1.4.2008 in so far as not already in force) by Concessionary Bus Travel Act 2007 (c. 13), s. 15(1), Sch. 2 para. 6; S.I. 2007/2799, arts. 2, 3 (with art. 4)

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 S. 137(1) extended (11.1.2006) by The Cambridgeshire Guided Busway Order 2005 (S.I. 2005/3523), art. 36 (with art. 52)

C2 S. 137(7) applied by 2010 c. 15, s. 181D(3) (as inserted (26.6.2018) by Bus Services Act 2017 (c. 21), ss. 17(1), 26(2); S.I. 2018/758, reg. 2)

Marginal Citations

M1 1962 c. 46.

M2 1972 c. 70.

M3 1968 c. 73.

M4 1981 c. 14.

M5 1985 c. 6.

M6 1970 c. 42.

M7 1968 c. 49.

137 General interpretation. S

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—

• “the 1962 Act” means the M1 Transport Act 1962;

• “the 1972 Act” means the M2 Local Government Act 1972;

• “the 1968 Act” means the M3 Transport Act 1968;

• “the 1981 Act” means the M4 Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981;

• “body” means a body of persons, whether corporate or unincorporate;

• “bus service condition” has the meaning given by section 119(4) of this Act;

• “bus substitution service” has the meaning given by section 119(1) of this Act;

• [F1 “council”, in relation to Scotland, means a council constituted under section 2 of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994;]

• “employees’ share scheme” means a scheme for encouraging or facilitating the holding of shares or debentures in a company by or for the benefit of—

  (a)

  the bona fide employees or former employees of the company or of a subsidiary of the company; or

  (b)

  the wives, husbands, widows, widowers or children or step-children under the age of eighteen of such employees or former employees;

• “equity share capital” [F2 has the same meaning as in the Companies Acts (see section 548 of the Companies Act 2006)];

• “excursion or tour” means a service for the carriage of passengers by road at separate fares on which the passengers travel together on a journey, with or without breaks, from one or more places to one or more other places and back;

• “functions” includes powers, duties and obligations;

• “interest” means, in relation to a company’s share capital of any description, a beneficial interest (whether held directly or through nominees or subsidiaries) in that share capital;

• “liability” includes an obligation;

• “local service” has the meaning given by section 2 of this Act;

• “London” means the administrative area of Greater London as for the time being constituted;

• “London local service” has the meaning given by section 34(1) of this Act;

• “pension”, in relation to a person, means a pension, whether contributory or not, of any kind whatsoever payable to or in respect of him, and includes—

  (a)

  a gratuity so payable;

  (b)

  a return of contributions to a pension fund, with or without interest on or any other addition to those contributions; and

  (c)

  any sums payable on or in respect of the death of that person;

• “pension rights” includes, in relation to any person, all forms of right to or eligibility for the present or future payment of a pension, and any expectation of the accruer of a pension under any customary practice, and includes a right of allocation in respect of the present or future payment of a pension;

• “prescribed” means prescribed by regulations;

• “public passenger transport services” has the meaning given by section 63(10)(a) of this Act;

• “the Railways Board” means the British Railways Board established under section 1 of the 1962 Act;

• “regulations” means regulations made by the Secretary of State;

• “securities”, in relation to a body corporate, means any shares, stock, debentures, debenture stock, and any other security of a similar nature, of the body corporate;

• M6 “social services functions” means functions which are social services functions for the purposes of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970;

• M7 “social work functions” means functions which are social work functions for the purposes of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968;

• F4 . . .

• “stopping place” means, in relation to any service or part of a service, a point at which passengers are (or, in the case of a proposed service, are proposed to be) taken up or set down in the course of that service or part;

• “subsidiary” means, in relation to any body corporate, a body corporate which is a subsidiary of the first-mentioned body corporate [F5 within the meaning of section 736 of the Companies Act 1985 as originally enacted (and not as substituted by section 144(1) of the Companies Act 1989);]

• “traffic area” means a traffic area constituted for the purposes of the 1981 Act, and section 80 of that Act shall apply to references in this Act to the Metropolitan Traffic Area;

• F6 . . .

• “wholly-owned subsidiary” means a subsidiary all the securities of which are owned by a body corporate of which it is a subsidiary, or by one or more other wholly-owned subsidiaries of that body, or partly by that body and partly by any wholly-owned subsidiary of that body;

and the expressions listed in subsection (2) below have the same meaning as in the 1981 Act.

(2) Those expressions are—

• “company”;

• “contravention”;

• “fares”;

• “modification”;

• “operator” (in references to the operator of a vehicle);

• “operating centre”;

• “PSV operator’s licence”;

• “public service vehicle”;

• “road”;

• “statutory provision”; and

• “traffic commissioner”.

[F7 (2A) In this Act—

(a) any reference to a county shall be construed in relation to Wales as including a reference to a county borough;

(b) any reference to a county council shall be construed in relation to Wales as including a reference to a county borough council; and

(c) section 17(4) and (5) of the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 (references to counties and districts to be construed generally in relation to Wales as references to counties and county boroughs) shall not apply.]

(3) References in this Act to a vehicle’s being used for carrying passengers for hire or reward shall be read in accordance with section 1(5) of the 1981 Act.

(4) References in this Act to agreements providing for service subsidies shall be read in accordance with section 63(10)(b) of this Act.

(5) References in this Act to Passenger Transport Authorities and Executives and to passenger transport areas are references respectively to the Passenger Transport Authorities and Executives, and to passenger transport areas, for the purposes of Part II of the 1968 Act.

[F10 (5A) References in this Act to a combined authority are references to a combined authority established under section 103 of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009.]

(6) References in this Act, in relation to a bus substitution service, to the withdrawal of service shall be read in accordance with section 120(1) of this Act (and references to a withdrawal of service or to withdrawals of service have a corresponding meaning).

(7) For the purposes of this Act the operator of a passenger transport service of any description is the person, or each of the persons, providing the service; and for those purposes the operator of a vehicle being used on a road for the carriage of passengers for hire or reward at separate fares shall be taken to be providing the service provided by means of the vehicle unless he proves that the service is or forms part of a service provided not by himself but by one or more other persons.

(8) For the purposes of this Act an interest in a company’s equity share capital is a controlling interest if it subsists in more than half in nominal value of that capital.

Extent Information

E2 This version extends to Scotland only. A separate version has been created for England and Wales

Textual Amendments

F1 Words in s. 137(1) inserted (S.) (1.4.1996) by 1996/974, art. 2(1), Sch. 1 Pt. I para. 7(g)

F2 Words in s. 137(1) substituted (1.10.2009) by The Companies Act 2006 (Consequential Amendments, Transitional Provisions and Savings) Order 2009 (S.I. 2009/1941), art. 1(2), Sch. 1 para. 61 (with art. 10)

F4 S. 137(1): definition repealed (5.11.1993) by 1993 c.50, s. 1(1), Sch. 1 Pt.XIV

F5 Words substituted by Companies Act 1989 (c. 40, SIF 27), s. 144(4), Sch. 18 para. 39

F6 S. 137(1) definition of "trunk road" repealed (S.)(1.11.1991) by New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 (c. 22, SIF 59, 108), s. 168(1)(2), Sch. 8 Pt.IV para. 117(3), Sch. 9; S.I. 1991/2286, art. 2(2), Sch. 2

S. 137(1): definition of "trunk road" repealed (E.W.)(1.11.1991) by New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 (c.22, SIF 59, 108), s. 168(1)(2), Sch. 8, Pt. IV para. 117(3), Sch. 9; S.I. 1991/2288, art. 3, Sch.

F7 S. 137(2A) inserted (1.4.1996) by 1994 c. 19, s. 22(1), Sch. 7 Pt. II para. 39(10) (with ss. 54(5)(7), 55(5), Sch. 17 para. 22(1), 23(2)); S.I. 1996/396, art. 3, Sch. 1

F10 S. 137(5A) inserted (17.12.2009) by Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 (c. 20), s. 148(6), Sch. 6 para. 67; S.I. 2009/3318, art. 2(c)

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 S. 137(1) extended (11.1.2006) by The Cambridgeshire Guided Busway Order 2005 (S.I. 2005/3523), art. 36 (with art. 52)

C2 S. 137(7) applied by 2010 c. 15, s. 181D(3) (as inserted (26.6.2018) by Bus Services Act 2017 (c. 21), ss. 17(1), 26(2); S.I. 2018/758, reg. 2)

Marginal Citations

M1 1962 c. 46.

M2 1972 c. 70.

M3 1968 c. 73.

M4 1981 c. 14.

M6 1970 c. 42.

M7 1968 c. 49.