My Lords, I would like to discuss Amendment 93. The noble Baroness has done the Committee a service by reading out a letter from the CMA. My first reaction was that the amendment was not a good idea, because it put a constraint on what the CMA would normally do. On page 42 of the Bill the CMA is listed as one of the organisations to be consulted, and that seemed all right to me. However, the CMA’s letter causes me some concern. Presumably, the Government consulted the CMA before drafting this text. The idea that, having been consulted once, the CMA would go against the principles of the Bill and come back for a few more bites of the cherry is going to put off a large number of authorities that might want to take forward these changes. That is worrying, because it might put off a lot of local authorities from doing it at all.
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The noble Baroness mentioned the CMA’s work in the rail sector, which I know has been subject to quite a lot of debate—quite recently in your Lordships’ House. It made its decision on an open-access rail
operator on the east coast main line, and I would not want to challenge it. However, the Government effectively challenged it by writing to the CMA or the regulator—I cannot remember which it was—and saying, “If you decide in favour of a particular open-access operation rather than cancelling it, we will not allow Network Rail to spend the money necessary to implement it”. To me, that is interfering in the independence of the regulator and, if necessary, the CMA. I do not know what the end result will be and if it will get the money or not, but it is a serious issue when the Government interfere with an independent regulator.
We need to hear from the Minister, and it would be interesting if the noble Baroness could let us have copies of the letter, and give it to the Minister as well, if she has not done so already, because there are some serious issues here that need to be addressed before the next stage. If the CMA is going to have the right and, apparently, the ability to interfere any time it wants, unless circumstances have changed quite significantly, one wonders what the point is of the Bill. I hope that I am wrong, but I could do with hearing some comfort from the Minister.