Concerning home-to-school transport services involving passengers not entitled to free transport:

1. Exempt Vehicle Usage
When was the last time a PSVAR-exempt vehicle was used on such services? Please specify provider, route(s), and date.
E1 – Horsemans Coaches, last operated Sept 25
E2 – Horsemans Coaches, last operated Sept 25

2. Eliminating Exempt Vehicles
What contractual measures or guidance have you implemented to ensure exempt vehicles are no longer used on these particular trips?
All tenders which go out under Lots 9 of the Dynamic Purchasing System for Transport Services (Coaches up to 80 seats for the purpose of home to school transport) clearly state on tender specification that PSVAR complaint vehicles must be provided as part of the contract.

3. PSVAR-Compliant Fleet Share
a) Of the vehicles deployed on these specific non-entitled passenger services, how many (number and percentage) are fully PSVAR-compliant? We have 7 routes which operate with coaches and carry both eligible and non-eligible students. 71% of the coaches are PSVAR complaint.
b) How do you ensure that companies providing home to school services have the requisite number and proportion of fully PSVAR compliant vehicles as required from 1st August 2025 depending on their fleet size? We ask them and they self-certify that they have the required number.

4. Monitoring & Enforcement
How is compliance monitored? What are the consequences or remediation steps if providers fail to meet no-use or compliance obligations? Monitored once a year through request for relevant information. Certificate of conformity and LOLER. Horseman Coaches have an online tracking portal whereby we can enter the coach registration plate and then we can see where the coach is at any given time. We can monitor remotely that the correct vehicles are assigned to coach routes in the morning and afternoon.
On-site monitoring takes place on an ad-hoc basis for mainstream secondary (only routes these vehicles are use on). On-site monitoring would check correct vehicle via registration match. Enforcement would be as per Appendix F of the Dynamic Purchasing System (attached).

5. Related Documentation
Please forward any policy documents, guidance, risk assessments, correspondence with providers, or exemption requests related to PSVAR compliance for this category of school transport. We don’t mention PSVAR in policy documents for residents. We have a spare seat policy which is only applicable to coaches where we have spare capacity available after all eligible children have been accommodated. The spare seat policy can be viewed on the Council’s website under the relevant section https://www.wokingham.gov.uk/schools-and-education/school-information-and-services/travel-assistance-school-and-college. When tendering for services we require vehicles to be PSVAR complaint vehicles. Tender bids must state vehicles are PSVAR compliant otherwise they would be disqualified.
Operators of services are required to send through all contract compliance data once a year in relation to their contracts.