B1340.2 - Active Transport (Amendment) Bill

A

Bill

To

Amend the provisions of the Active Transport Act 2021 to end the scheme whereby you can get paid for handing in your driving licence or be given a voucher for not having a motor vehicle registered in your name

Section 1: Interpretations

For the purposes of this Act:—

“the 2021 Act” shall refer to the Active Transport Act 2021

“cycle” shall have the same meaning as in Section 192 of the Road Traffic Act 1988.

Section 2: Amendments

(1) Section 5 of the 2021 Act is hereby repealed in its entirety

(2) Persons who have formally begun the process of seeking a voucher or discount under Section 5 of the 2021 Act shall be entitled to complete their application should they prove eligible be entitled to the relevant voucher.

(3) Any vouches obtained under the 2021 Act shall remain valid and are not affected by this Act.

Section 3: Cycle to Work Scheme

(1) Section 244 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 is restored with the following amendments.

(a) omit “mainly” from 244(3)

Section 4: Student Cycle Voucher Scheme

(1) Student Finance England shall be responsible for the administration of a Student Cycle Voucher Scheme with the aim of supporting students purchasing a bike.

(2) An eligible student may receive a voucher of £500 for the purchase of a cycle, electric scooter or safety equipment.

(3) An eligible student may receive only one voucher for the duration of this scheme.

(a) A person is not eligible for a Voucher under this Section if they have received one under Section 5.

(4) A student must be able to apply for a Student Cycle Voucher at the same time that they apply for any other maintenance support from Student Finance England.

(a) Student Finance England must ensure at least two other application periods are opened up for this scheme during any given academic year which would allow for the awarding of the Voucher at the beginning of each university term in line with other maintenance payments.

(5) For the purposes of this Section, an “eligible student” is someone who is currently eligible for any support for living costs from Student Finance England.

(6) The Secretary of State may introduce regulations in the negative procedure that they find necessary for the implementation of this scheme.

Section 5: General Cycle Voucher Scheme

(1) The Secretary of State shall be responsible for the administration of a scheme to give vouchers of up to £750 for the purchase of cycle, electric scooter or cycle safety equipment for people who, according to HMRC, are not forecast to earn above the personal allowance in the financial year they are applying for the voucher.

(2) A person may only receive one voucher under this Section.

(a) A person is not eligible for a Voucher under this Section if they have received one under Section 4.

(3) The Secretary of State must make available at least 100,000 vouchers between September 1st 2021 and March 31st 2022.

(4) From the 4th of April 2023 to the 31st of March 2024, the Secretary of State must make available at least 100,000 vouchers for this Scheme.

(3) The Secretary of State may:—

(a) Set how many vouchers shall be released in any given time frame from the 1st of April 2024 onwards;
(b) Amend the number of vouchers set to be released under Section 5(3) and 5(4) of this Act; and,
(c) Amend who is eligible for a voucher under this Section,

via regulations using the positive procedure.

Section 6

(1) The Secretary of State shall be responsible for the administration of a scheme to give vouchers of up to £2500 for the purchase of adapted active transport or personal electric vehicle equipment for people whom are eligible for:

(a) the secretary of state deems as having mobility issues inhibiting the usage of traditional cycles or scooters; and
(b) are deemed as benefitting from adapted active transport or personal electric vehicles.
(c) the Secretary of State may amend who is eligible for a voucher under this Section, via regulations using the positive procedure.

(2) A person may only receive one voucher under this Section.

(a) A person is not eligible for a Voucher under this Section if they have received one under other sections.

Section 7: Extent, Commencement and Short Title

(1) This Act shall extend to England only except—

(a) Section 3 which shall extend to the extent that the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 extends.

(2) This Act shall come into force immediately upon Royal Assent except—

(a) Section 5 which shall come into force upon the passage of the next Finance Act.

(3) This Act shall be known as the Active Transport (Amendment) Act 2022.

This bill was written by The Right Honourable Sir /u/Tommy2Boys KCT KG KT KCB KBE KCVO MP MSP, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Member of Parliament for Manchester North on behalf of the 30th Government.

Opening Speech

Deputy Speaker,

I rise today to present a relatively short bill to the House to rectify one of the weaknesses in the previous government's Active Transport Act. I, and the government, believe the Act was in many ways important and did a lot of good, however Section 5 is a weak spot which we are seeking to repeal and replace today.

Section 5(2) allows someone to hand in their driving licence and in return get a voucher for £2000 for so-called “active transport”. I believe this provision profoundly misunderstands people who use schemes such as cycle to work or who may want to find a better way to commute that does not involve a personal vehicle. Just because they may want to commute a better way does not mean they can afford to simply give up their car altogether. It may be possible to cycle to and from work every day, but does that mean someone wants to take the bus to do their shopping, or face long unaffordable train journeys when they want to see relatives at the other side of the country for a holiday. I also believe it sends a message that the central government does not want people to be transitioning to electric cars, preferring people to give up cars altogether. This is not the case, at least for our part. We want people to be picking electric cars, and the best use of this money is therefore to expand things like electric car charging points which this government has plans to do as opposed to paying people to hand in their licence.

Section 5(4) [there is no section 5(3)] gives somebody 15% off an “active transportation vehicle” of up to £3000. This in my view is a terrible way to encourage people away from cars for the same reasons above. The subset of people who will be able to just give up their cars and buy a bike is small. The definition also doesn’t include electric cars which once again suggests the previous government were not overly fussed on promoting such an endeavour. I don’t see why we should be subsidising someone buying a bike in the way that has been outlined in this section so I do support it’s repeal.

Section 5(5) mentions British Leyland which has already been removed from this Act during its initial debate, so happy to clarify this by removing this subsection.

Finally we come onto 5(1) and the issue of the Cycle to Work Scheme. This is a scheme which in 2019 had helped 1.6 million people cycle to work and involved 40,000 different employers. This is a scheme which I fully believe in and for which the government is bringing back through the restoration of provisions repealed by the ATA. One of the criticism levelled against this scheme was that those who work minimum wage wouldn’t qualify for the scheme, I don’t believe this to be true for full time workers but it is certainly the case that those who work part time or do not work (for whatever reason) are currently unable to qualify for this scheme. There is no perfect solution to this but I believe the schemes we have devised to get around this is a fair one.

The amendment I am making to the scheme is that the condition of the bike being “mainly” for work purposes is removed. To be clear it would still be the expectation that you do make “qualifying journeys'', ie to work or between workplaces, on the bike but if you were also going to use it to cycle into town every evening or every weekend and you may technically use it more than “mainly” just for work you would now be eligible for this scheme.

Secondly, we are creating an easily implementable student scheme which will get more students cycling both to university and just more generally. When applying for SFE support, students will be able to seek a voucher of £200 which will go towards the purchase of a bike or bike safety equipment. Encouraging young people to cycle more means it is more likely they will keep this going throughout this life. This is not a loan, they are under no obligation to pay it back. We are administering the scheme through SFE purely because right now the vast majority of students will use the SFE website for their application and so it is a quick and easy way to advertise and distribute these vouchers.

Finally, I hear the concerns raised that the cycle to work scheme does not do enough to target those who earn below the personal allowance. These people not only are not eligible for the tax relief, but will also have a lower purchasing power due to the fact they have a lower income, but we still want to support them getting active. For that reason, we are offering a one off £250 voucher to purchase a bike and / or relevant safety equipment. Just because you earn below the personal allowance does not mean we don’t want people from being active. Currently, however, the basic income scheme that exists means that very few if any people will actually be eligible for this scheme. The Government has made no secret that we wish to abolish basic income and so will be holding this scheme in reserve ready to be deployed once we have successfully brought basic income to an end.

In terms of the cost of this legislation. Section 4 could cost at most £300 million in the first year and £100 million a year after that, although we do not expect a 100% eligibility uptake. On average, in 2021 41% of people aged 17 - 20 already had access to a bike. According to polling carried out by Bike is Best, around 50% of people would cycle more if changes were made to make cycling easier such as cycle lanes. There is no exact polling on people who wish to cycle more who currently cannot because of costs. When these two figures are combined, we can assume a takeup of around 450000 in the first year and 150,000 every year after that (assuming around 500k new students every year supported by SFE) at a cost of 90 million in the first year and 30 million every year after that. For the purposes of ensuring there is enough slack in the system, we will therefore budget £100 million in the first year and £35 million a year after that. Of course this can be changed in future based on more concrete uptake data. As for Section 5, it will cost at most £25 million in the first period then £25 million the following financial year.

The point of these schemes is that they provide targeted financial schemes to give people bikes to commute. They do not force people to give up a motor vehicle to get this support. They do not force people to hand over their driving licence so they can afford to buy a bike. This scheme is open to more schemes than the previous governments and will ensure more people can benefit from getting active. This Government is committed to expanding access to active transport and I commend this bill to the House.

Amendment 1

In section 5 (3) Replace 2021 with 2022 and 2022 with 2023

en: So that the dates are not longer in the past and these vouchers can actually be used.

This amendment has been moved in the name of the Earl of Kearton.

Lords may vote either Content, Not Content or Present to the amendment.

The vote on the proposed amendment shall end on the 8th July at 10pm BST.