High Speed Rail (West Midlands–Crewe) Bill

I thank the noble Lord for his intervention, but perhaps I may pick up all the issues surrounding...

My Lords, will the Minister also say whether part of the evidence that the review takes will incl...

I shall indeed cover that in my closing remarks.

It is nearly 200 years since permission wa...

Does the Minister agree that those who demand longer tunnels and deeper cuttings are usually the ...

The noble Lord raises an interesting point. HS2 is intended to be greater than the sum of its par...

My Lords, the HS2 project is an initiative of the last Labour Government and one which we still s...

My Lords, first, I congratulate the Minister on her enthusiasm about this project. It is good to ...

Nine.

Nine years. If we are talking about it being completed by potentially getting up to Leeds and Man...

My Lords, I shall be echoing the enthusiasm for this project of the Minister and the noble Lord, ...

My Lords, I am sorry to spoil the consensus but I really feel as though this is Groundhog Day. I ...

My Lords, I congratulate the Minister on her opening speech. As I will point out in a moment, the...

I am not sure that I said it had been conducted without parliamentary consent, did I?

The noble Lord said scrutiny.

It is important to be accurate, with great respect to the noble Lord. He said that I said it had ...

I did not. I said, “without proper parliamentary scrutiny”. There has been massive parliamentary ...

The noble Lord, Lord Framlingham, stuck to seven minutes.

There is not a fixed time limit. I will make two more points if I may.

When the noble Lord,...

Will the noble Lord give way, since he is determined to take up the time of the House that nobody...

It is a high-speed line, but from the beginning the prime case for HS2 has been additional capaci...

My Lords, the most important factor we should consider today is the impact that HS2 could have on...

I hope that the noble Lord has come to the end of his comments.

No. I have not been allowed enough time to debate this Bill because the Government of their own v...

Perhaps I may remind the noble Lord that the advisory speaking time is seven minutes. We can be q...

I am aware of the advisory speaking time. It was imposed on us by the Government’s edict.

My Lords, regardless of what the noble Lord has said, I think that it is quite unacceptable that ...

The advisory speaking time is in deference to colleagues because we have a number of other issues...

I am sorry, but the Prorogation of Parliament has had nothing to do with me. It is entirely at th...

Shouting at us for longer than the advisory speaking time really does not convince anyone. It doe...

It is the Government who should have the courtesy.

I was going to go on to ask when progress is expected on the route across the Pennines. Do the Go...

My Lords, as a former railwayman I have never made any secret of my support for this scheme, whic...

My Lords, I am a strong supporter of HS2. I was before I had the privilege of becoming a Minister...

My Lords, I start by saying that I agree with pretty well everything that everybody—except for on...

It is integral to the plan that there will be through services to Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Absolutely—but these things need to keep being said, because people who are not served by the par...

My Lords, I am sorry to be slow in rising to my feet to speak, but I was so fascinated by the oth...

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Baroness. I do not entirely agree with her b...

My Lords, I will make a very short speech, because most of the points I wanted to make have alrea...

My Lords, I declare my interest as chair of The Woodland Trust. There may well be benefits to HS2...

My Lords, I put my name down for this debate, but withdrew it when I feared that I would have to ...

My Lords, I start with a reference to procedure. The Government’s attempt to impose an arbitrary ...

My Lords, not only does High Speed 2 get delayed but even this debate on the Government’s latest ...

I thank all noble Lords who have taken part in this wide-ranging debate. I am heartened by the am...

Can I take it then, in the light of that comment, that the Government are not prepared to rule ou...

The Prime Minister has been very clear that nothing has been taken off the table. Imagine if the ...

I would agree, if we were faced with figures such as those which appeared to completely change th...

That may well be the case, but we are now talking about hypotheticals, so I suggest that we wait ...

Will the Minister at least acknowledge that the felling of trees and the damaging of ancient wood...

I will come on to the issue of ancient woodland in due course and will look into the amount of wo...

Perhaps I can help the Minister with that. I would be delighted to send her the list of woodland ...

I suspect that I may already have that list, but I would be delighted to receive it again.

...

Would the Minister be willing to meet on one occasion to take up that issue of whistleblowers?