(1)No liability to income tax arises in respect of the provision for employees of a works transport service if—
(a)the service is available generally to employees of the employer (or each employer) concerned,
(b)the main use of the service is for qualifying journeys by those employees, and
(c)the service—
(i)is used only by the employees for whom it is provided or their children, or
(ii)is substantially used only by those employees or children.
(2)In this section—
“children” includes stepchildren and illegitimate children but does not include children aged 18 or over, and
“works transport service” means a service which is provided by means of a bus or a minibus for conveying employees of one or more employers on qualifying journeys.
(3)For the purposes of this section—
(a)“bus” means a road passenger vehicle which has a seating capacity of 12 or more, and
(b)“minibus” means a vehicle constructed or adapted for the carriage of passengers which has a seating capacity of 9, 10 or 11.
(4)But a vehicle which falls within the definition in subsection (3)(b) is not a minibus for the purposes of this section if—
(a)it has one or more disqualified seats, and
(b)excluding the disqualified seats, it has a seating capacity of 8 or less.
(5)For the purposes of subsections (3) and (4) the seating capacity of a vehicle is determined in the same way as for the purposes of Part 3 of Schedule 1 to VERA 1994 (vehicle excise duty on buses).
This applies whether or not the vehicle is a bus within the meaning of that Part of that Schedule.
(6)For the purposes of subsection (4) a seat is disqualified if relevant construction and use requirements are not met in relation to it.
In this subsection “construction and use requirements” has the same meaning as in Part 2 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 (c. 52) or, in Northern Ireland, Part III of the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 (S.I. 1995/2994 (N.I. 18)).