Crossrail Bill

The two amendments tabled in my name and that of the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, and the amendments tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, have enabled this debate. I have no problem with the two major government amendments to which my noble friend spoke, but I have a problem with some of his statements that seem to backtrack on the industry processes policies that I thought we had all agreed a long time ago. I am pleased that the Government have withdrawn these clauses about the access option and the regulator, which caused enormous problems with the industry. However, I get the impression that there is still some wishful thinking in the department over how this issue is interpreted. My noble friend mentioned a judicial review. I do not think that a judicial review has been sought by anybody in the industry since privatisation nearly 15 years ago, but I may be wrong. He also mentioned blocking rights. They came up in the Select Committee and the conclusion was that industry processes could be used to resolve them. I hope that the Government mean what they say about using industry processes. The text of my noble friend’s two amendments is fine, and I hope that his statement, which I shall have to read in great detail, is not trying to put the clock back to recover a few things that the Government let go in these railway clauses. It could be argued that the first government amendment is unnecessary because the regulator has a duty to consider all matters in respect of railways under Section 4 duties. I know that it was included for the Olympics. My understanding from the ORR is that, in practice, these things do not have much effect because it has to consider everything anyway, so why put it in? In future, we will talk about the west coast main line project. It will probably cost about £10 billion as opposed to the £16 billion for Crossrail, but it is still a very big project and nobody has said that there must be special clauses saying that the regulator must look at the west coast main line with or without the effect of the other operators, so I am not sure why this is needed. Perhaps I am arguing against my amendment, but at least we have had an opportunity to talk about it. Turning to the second government amendment, what is going to be in this report? My noble friend has not said, and it is not in the amendment. My amendment requires the report to include the effect on other operators, which any normal report on project progress would include. What will be in this report? Is it that TfL and the Government have agreed how to finance it, that construction has started or that there is a new regulatory regime? Is it going to be about the finance? It is nice to have a report, but what is so different about this from the rest of the railway? Is it a report by the ORR explaining whether it is meeting its objectives? I am sure that that report would be very short and say yes. If my noble friend can give an outline of what will be in this ORR report, I can look further and see whether I think it is all right.