Railways (Convention on International Carriage by Rail) Regulations 2005

rose to move, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Railways (Convention on International Carriage by Rail) Regulations 2005. The noble Lord said: The purpose of the proposed regulations is to give effect in the United Kingdom to the 1999 version of the long-standing international railways convention, COTIF. COTIF, of course, is the Convention relative aux Transports Internationaux Ferroviaires. As my noble friend’s pronunciation is so execrable, I intend, with the permission of the Committee, to refer to it as COTIF for the rest of the afternoon. Once transposed into domestic law, COTIF will cover England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The UK has been a signatory to the convention since the 1950s. The version of the convention in force in the UK today is COTIF 1980. There are 42 signatories, including most European countries, countries in north Africa and the Near East. The convention sets uniform law for international rail traffic between its member states. The latest revision takes account of the significant structural changes that have taken place in the organisation of railways in many countries with the separation of infrastructure management from train operations and the liberalisation of access to the rail network. The revision is designed to ensure that the convention’s rules remain fit for purpose in those changed circumstances. Giving effect to the new version of COTIF will enable UK rail industry parties and customers to continue to benefit from the existence of common rules that reduce the transaction costs associated with the provision of international rail carriage. If the UK does not ratify the convention, we will no longer be bound by international rules. In the longer term, the train operators involved will be likely to incur higher costs in putting in place the necessary contractual arrangements to enable international traffic to operate. My department’s consultation with stakeholders has indicated that there is substantial support for proceeding with ratification. The implementation of the new version of COTIF is, however, unlikely to yield significant net benefits for UK train operators or customers over the current situation. That is because, in many respects, the minimum standards that COTIF sets out are exceeded in practice in the United Kingdom and in neighbouring countries. For example, although in COTIF the compensation rates for passengers killed or injured while making international journeys from the United Kingdom have increased from about £56,000 to £140,000, that limit makes little difference in the UK. In the UK, there is no upper limit for a claim for compensation for such an event. The benefit for UK passengers relates to a situation in which someone is killed or injured in a country where, before the limits imposed by COTIF 1999, there was a lower compensation regime. COTIF 1999 increases the base limit to be applied throughout all COTIF member states. UK residents making international journeys will benefit from that. The Government propose, by agreement with France, to derogate from the uniform rules on contracts for carriage of passengers and freight in respect of the Channel Tunnel shuttles. That will retain the shuttles’ current status as being outside the scope of COTIF rules and is justified by the clear stand-alone status. At present, there is no consensus for a declaration by the European Community against the uniform rules on access contracts in the new version of COTIF. That means that a small number of access contracts in Great Britain may, in due course, need to be amended in certain limited respects. I want to draw attention to three provisions in the proposed regulations. First, Regulation 1 provides that the regulations come into force on the date on which the 1999 protocol enters into force in the UK. That is likely to be either later this year or early next year. The precise date will be the later date of the date that the UK ratifies the protocol and the date when the protocol comes into force. The protocol comes into force when 27 states have ratified it. The 26th state, Syria, ratified it only very recently. In practice, the determining date for implementation is likely to be when the protocol comes into force. The Government will ensure that industry parties are kept apprised of developments. The second point is that the definition of ““the Convention”” in Regulation 2 has the effect that changes to the convention, agreed by the OTIF committees referred to, flow directly into UK law without the need for new regulations. The remit of the committees is defined in the convention itself and is limited to minor technical matters. This provision, which the Committee will recognise is of great significance, is designed to ensure effective use of parliamentary time by allowing minor technical changes—for example, to the requirements on the format of tickets—to flow through directly, and to ensure that major changes, such as a new set of uniform rules, require prior parliamentary scrutiny. Parliament approved the principle behind that in the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003 under which these regulations have been made. Finally, Regulation 3(2) draws attention to the clause in COTIF 1999 designed to ensure that, for EC member states, European Community law overrules COTIF law in the event of any contradiction between the two. That has a significant bearing on the extent to which the 1999 version of COTIF will not be applied in the UK and in other member states. In particular, COTIF rules on technical standards and approvals for railway equipment will not be applied, as EC laws regulating this area already exist and, as I have indicated, take primacy. In conclusion, these proposed regulations enable the new version of the convention to come into force. That provides for a reasonable and proportionate updating of the long-standing existing legal framework for international rail traffic. This will facilitate the future development of that traffic, something to which I am sure all Members of the Committee would subscribe. I beg to move. Moved, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Railways (Convention on International Carriage by Rail) Regulations 2005.—(Lord Davies of Oldham.)