Transport (Scotland) Act 2005
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Citation | 2005 asp 12 |
| Year | 2005 |
Transport (Scotland) Act 2005
2005 asp 12
The Bill for this Act of the Scottish Parliament was passed by the Parliament on 29th June 2005 and received Royal Assent on 5th August 2005
An Act of the Scottish Parliament to provide for the setting up and functions of new transport bodies and to enable the Scottish Ministers to discharge certain transport functions; to provide further for the control and co-ordination of road works and for the enforcement of the duties placed on those who carry them out; to set up national concessionary fares schemes; and to make other, miscellaneous modifications of the law relating to transport.
Part 1
Regional transport
Regional Transport Partnerships
Establishment etc.
1 Establishment of regional Transport Partnerships
(1) The Scottish Ministers shall, by order—
(a) divide Scotland into regions for the purposes of this Part of this Act;
(b) create, for each region, a body corporate (to be known as the Transport Partnership with the addition of the name given, by or under the order, to the region);
(c) provide as to the constitution and membership of each Transport Partnership.
(2) In carrying out the duty under subsection (1)(c) above, the Scottish Ministers—
(a) shall secure that the total number of councillor members of a Transport Partnership is not more than 20;
(b) shall secure that the membership of a Transport Partnership includes one or more (but not more than five) councillors appointed by and from—
(i) each council the area or any part of the area of which falls within the Transport Partnership's region; or
(ii) if that region is coterminous with a council's area, that council,
(each such member of the Transport Partnership being a "councillor member" and each such council or, as the case may be, that council being, in relation to the Transport Partnership, a or the "constituent council");
(c) shall secure—
(i) that during the period ending with the event specified in subsection (3) below, the other members of the Transport Partnership are appointed to it by the Scottish Ministers; and
(ii) that afterwards each such member is appointed by the Partnership but subject to the consent of the Scottish Ministers;
(d) shall provide as to the duration and termination of membership of members of the Transport Partnership;
(e) shall provide as to the determination of questions for decision by the Transport Partnership; and for the purposes of any decision which is to be determined by a vote—
(i) shall provide that councillor members may vote on all matters and other members only on such matters as the Transport Partnership determines are appropriate (but not on a question arising under section 3(2)(a) below or on whether to make a request for the making of an order under section 10(1) below);
(ii) shall, subject to subsection (4) below, provide as to weightings to be applied to the votes cast by councillor members; and may in so doing provide as to different weightings to be applied to the votes cast by different councillor members;
(iii) shall secure, whether in providing as to the weighting of votes of councillor members in accordance with sub-paragraph (ii) above or in providing for the number of other members, or in a combination of both, that the minimum voting capacity of all the councillor members of the Partnership is not less than two-thirds of that of its whole membership;
(f) may provide that certain of the offices of the Transport Partnership may be held only by councillor members;
(g) may provide that councillor members (but only councillor members) may be represented and vote by proxies at meetings of the Transport Partnership;
(h) may provide for the delegation by the Transport Partnership of any of its functions to any committee established by the Partnership;
(i) may provide for the appointment by each of—
(i) the Transport Partnership; and
(ii) the Scottish Ministers,
of one or more observers, that is to say, persons who may (to such extent as may be specified in or provided for in the order) participate in proceedings of the Partnership but who may not hold office in it or participate in its decisions;
(j) may provide for the payment by a Transport Partnership of—
(i) remuneration to its members or some of them;
(ii) reimbursement of its members' expenses.
(3) The event referred to in subsection (2)(c) above is the holding of the poll at ordinary elections for councillors in 2007.
(4) For the purpose of subsection (2)(e)(ii) above, a vote shall be weighted by making it count as one, two, three or four votes.
2 Dissolution of regional Transport Partnerships
(1) The Scottish Ministers may, by order, dissolve any one or more Transport Partnerships or all of them.
(2) On dissolving a Transport Partnership, the Scottish Ministers may, by order, provide for any function of the Partnership to be carried out by the person who carried it out immediately before the coming into effect of—
(a) the order under section 10 below which transferred it to the Partnership; or
(b) if there have been two or more orders under that section transferring that function, the first of those orders.
(3) Before making an order under this section, the Scottish Ministers shall consult—
(a) the Transport Partnership or Partnerships to be dissolved;
(b) its or their constituent councils or council; and
(c) such other persons as the Scottish Ministers think fit.
(4) An order under this section may modify any enactment.
Administration
3 Regional Transport Partnerships: funding and borrowing
(1) The net expenses of a Transport Partnership for each financial year shall be paid by—
(a) its constituent councils; or
(b) where there is only one, that council.
(2) The share of the expenses to be paid by a constituent council under subsection (1)(a) above shall be—
(a) such as the Transport Partnership, having regard to its transport strategy, thinks fit; or
(b) where the Partnership is unable to decide, such as is determined by the Scottish Ministers by order.
(3) The Scottish Ministers may, by order, provide as to the arrangements for the payment of amounts payable under this section.
(4) For the purposes of this section, the net expenses of a Transport Partnership for a financial year are those of its expenses for that year which are not met—
(a) by a grant made by any person which is not repayable;
(b) by a grant so made which is subject to a condition requiring repayment and which remains unsatisfied; or
(c) by any other income for that year.
(5) A Transport Partnership may give grants or loans to any person for any purposes that, in its opinion, contribute to the implementation of the Partnership's transport strategy.
(6) Such grants or loans may be given subject to such conditions (including conditions requiring repayment in specified circumstances) as the Transport Partnership decides.
(7) A Transport Partnership may borrow money for the purpose of its capital expenditure.
(8) In this section, "financial year" means the period of 12 months ending with 31st March.
4 Further provision about regional Transport Partnerships
Schedule 1 provides further as to Transport Partnerships and their members.
Regional transport strategies
5 Formulation and content of regional transport strategies
(1) It is the duty of each Transport Partnership to draw up a strategy for transport within its region (its "transport strategy").
(2) Its transport strategy shall include provision about each of the following matters—
(a) the respects in which transport in the region needs to be provided, developed or improved having regard to, among other things—
(i) future needs including those occasioned by demographic and land use changes; and
(ii) what can be done, taking account of cost, funding and practicability;
(b) meeting the needs of all inhabited places, in particular, those which the Partnership considers different from the remainder of the region by reason of their remoteness or the sparsity of their populations;
(c) meeting the need for efficient transport links between heavily populated places;
(d) how transport in the region will be provided, developed, improved and operated so as—
(i) to enhance social and economic well-being;
(ii) to promote public safety, including road safety and the safety of users of public transport;
(iii) to be consistent with the principle of sustainable development and to conserve and enhance the environment;
(iv) to promote social inclusion;
(v) to encourage equal opportunities and, in particular, the observance of the equal opportunities requirements;
(vi) to facilitate access to hospitals, clinics, surgeries and other places where a health service is provided;
(vii) to integrate with transport elsewhere;
(e) the order of priority in which different elements of the provision, development and improvement of transport should be undertaken;
(f) how the Transport Partnership's functions will be exercised so as to fulfil its transport strategy and, if the Partnership considers that the conferring of further functions is necessary for that purpose, what those functions are;
(g) how the Transport Partnership, so as to enable it to fulfil its transport strategy, will seek to influence its constituent councils or council in the performance of their functions relating...
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