My Lords, safety levels in industry in general in the UK are very high. These days, we take rail safety more or less for granted, but that was not the case two decades or so ago. Last year, we had a harsh reminder that we should not take it for granted, with the tragic accident in south Wales.
The noble Lord is right to raise this issue. I put my name down to speak because I was curious to see whether it was a general concern about safety or a specific issue that sparked the amendment. It is clear from what he has said today that his interest centres on the behaviour of employees towards residents and protesters.
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Looking at the issue from a different direction, HS2 is a giant linear building site and, as such, is very difficult to supervise, especially outside working hours. It is a building site that abuts literally thousands of residential sites. Therefore, in some ways, I am surprised that we have not spent more time talking about this issue in these debates, but we should certainly be interested in ensuring that, through these proposed reports or any other mechanism that the Minister is able to propose today, regular assurances are given, via us, to local residents that the highest standards are being taken and used and used on a regular basis within HS2 sites. Along with high standards of safety come high levels of convenience for local people. It is easy for safe and unsafe practices to spill over into inconvenience to local people, and inconvenience then spills on towards danger. Therefore, the noble Lord is right to raise this issue and I shall listen to the Minister’s answer with great interest.