Crossrail Bill

I am grateful to my noble friend for his explanation of the context of Amendment No. 20, which we all welcomed when it was first published. I do not understand why the three clauses are needed at all. That is the purpose of the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, and I giving notice of our intention to oppose clause stand part. During the Select Committee discussions, the Government agreed to take away the railway clauses, as we called them, and rely on the industry processes led by the ORR to settle disputes. There still seems to be a problem with settling disputes with London Underground and its PPP. It is a coincidence that effectively the regulator of the PPP is the same person as the chairman of the Office of Rail Regulation—Chris Bolt. It is interesting that the Government are happy with his role wearing one hat, but not with the other one. Noble Lords will remember the immortal words of the chairman of the Select Committee, the noble Viscount, Lord Colville, about Clause 41(3), when he said that it was Stalinist. You do not often hear people in your Lordships’ House using that word, but he being an eminent lawyer, he felt—and I agree—that having a clause that allows the Government to tell the arbiter what decision to make is, shall we say, unusual? I do not see why the standard industry processes with the arbiter for London Underground and the PPP—Chris Bolt—needs to be told the decision he should make when the Government have accepted for the rest of the railway to leave it to the ORR. My noble friend mentioned Farringdon station. Of course, LUL will have a very strong objective in sorting out the problems. If there is a problem, and Chris Bolt and the ORR are able to deal with it on the railways, why, wearing his other hat—which I think is for two days a week—cannot he do it for London Underground? Requiring people to co-operate may be a good idea but if they then take it as far as arbitration, which is expensive, and they know that they will then be told by the Government what to do, that degrades the whole process that has been so nicely agreed for the rest of the railway. I also hear what my noble friend said about BAA, and it is good that there is nearly an agreement. It is completely unregulated. At least the PPP is regulated in part. I do not know what BAA thinks about this clause but I am not sure that my noble friend has persuaded me that we need these three clauses at all. If we are to keep them I certainly welcome his Amendment No. 20 to Clause 40.