Ms Anne Graham:

No. In regard to licensed services, a commercial decision is made by an operator. The operator puts forward an application in terms of the service he or she wants to deliver and the NTA either accepts that or accepts it with amendment. For example, we may reduce the number of stopping places on their services based on competition from other operators.

That is the kind of assessment we do. If we believe a service is required, for example, for Moate, and it is not being provided on a commercial basis, and if we believe there is a public service obligation to provide a service, then that is where we step in with a contracted service, either through existing contracted operators or through new tenders.