# Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981, Section 46: Fare-paying passengers on school buses.

Extent: E+W+S

(1) Subject to subsection (2) below, a local authority may—
(a) use a school bus, when it is being used to provide free school transport, to carry as fare-paying passengers persons other than those for whom the free school transport is provided;
(b) use a school bus belonging to the authority, when it is not being used to provide free school transport, to provide a local . . . service;
and sections 6, 8, 9, and 12(1) of this Act shall not apply to a school bus belonging to a local authority in the course of its use by the authority in accordance with this subsection.
(2) Subsection (1) above does not affect the duties of a local authority in relation to the provision of free school transport or authorise a local authority to make any charge for the carriage of a pupil on a journey which he is required to make in the course of his education at a school maintained by such an authority.
(3) In this section—
“free school transport” means transport provided by a local authority free of charge—
(a)in pursuance of arrangements under section 508B(1), section 508C(1), section 508F(1), section 509(1) or (1A) or section 509AA(7)(b) or (9)(a) of the Education Act 1996,
(aa) in pursuance of arrangements made by the authority in pursuance of a scheme made by them under Schedule 35C to that Act (school travel schemes), or
(ab) in pursuance of arrangements under sections 3 or 4 of the Learner Travel (Wales) Measure 2008, or
(b)otherwise, in the exercise of any function of the authority,
for the purpose of facilitating the attendance of persons receiving education or training at any premises;
“local authority” has the meaning given by section 579(1) of the Education Act 1996;
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
“school bus”, in relation to a local authority , means a motor vehicle which is used by that authority to provide free school transport.
(4) In the application of this section to Scotland—
(a) for the references to a local authority there shall be substituted references to an education authority;
(b) in subsection (2) above for “maintained by” there shall be substituted “under the management of”; and
(c) in subsection (3) above for the definition of “free school transport” there shall be substituted—
““free school transport” means transport between a pupil’s home and place of education provided in pursuance of arrangements under subsection (1)(a) of section 51 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 (pupils for whom such transport facilities are necessary) or in pursuance of subsection (2) of that section (other pupils allowed to use vacant seats free of charge)”.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/14/section/46 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/public-passenger-vehicles-act-1981/section-46
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.