I thank the Minister for her explanation of the purpose and content of the regulations. It was very helpful and almost led me to rewrite parts of what I am going to say.
Before I go any further, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate, on noticing that he had been given 10 minutes to speak, compared with me, who has six minutes, and the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, who also has six minutes. I hope that the Government Chief Whip will at some stage explain why this state of affairs happened. The noble Lord, Lord Kirkhope, wondered whether it would ever happen again; I assure him that precisely the same thing does happen again in the next SI we have to deal with.
I also noted the noble Lord’s comments about the possibility of through trains between the north and Europe. I suspect that I am in the same boat as him in wondering why it is not possible to link up HS2 and HS1; the situation at the moment appears to be that there will not necessarily be a link.
I come back to the regulations, which, as the Explanatory Memorandum states,
“provide for the continued recognition of EEA issued rail operator licences … for the Channel Tunnel and the cross-border area”
and
“make the necessary amendments to domestic rail legislation to support the implementation of a UK-France bilateral agreement on the mutual recognition of rail operator licences”,
which, subject to final checks, is to be implemented and ratified. I, too, look forward to the Minister’s response on what progress is being made in those bilateral discussions.
The Explanatory Memorandum refers to
“cross-border operators, both current and prospective”
for whom these regulations are intended
“to provide long-term certainty … regarding the future operator licensing framework for the Channel Tunnel”.
Can the Minister say who the current operators referred to are and whether there are currently any further credible prospective operators on the horizon?
In paragraph 3.3 of the Explanatory Memorandum, there is a reference to
“information sharing by the Office of Rail and Road … in respect of holders of railway undertaking licences issued by the ORR”.
The Minister made reference to this matter in her opening comments. Is this sharing of information a regular occurrence? Did she cover all the issues involved in information sharing in her helpful comments, or are there other issues involving information sharing in addition to the ones she mentioned?
As the Minister said, and as the EM explains, the 2005 regulations, which are amended by these regulations,
“introduced the requirement for operators … to hold a Statement of National Regulatory Provisions … SNRPs supplement licensing requirements, for example setting out specific third-party insurance requirements over and above the general licensing requirement for adequate insurance to be maintained.”
The EM states:
“The requirement introduced by the 2005 Regulations … to hold a SNRP will be disapplied by the Regulations for operators relying on such licences to operate services through the Channel Tunnel and up to … Dollands Moor or Ashford International station.”
It says that this change
“is deemed necessary to support the mutual recognition of licences on a fully reciprocal basis.”
Yet it also says this:
“The impact of disapplying this requirement, if any, is expected to be very limited in practice given the very limited geographical scope of the exemption and given that all cross-border operators currently running services through the Channel Tunnel do so on the basis of a UK licence.”
Can the Minister confirm that this change in respect of an SNRP has no impact on the situation as it is at present or on any current operators of services through the tunnel? If I am wrong in thinking that, can she say what current arrangements and current operators are affected and in what way? Can she also say what the change in respect of disapplying the requirement to hold an SNRP will represent from the current position for any future EEA operator of rail services operating services
“through the Channel Tunnel and up to (but not beyond) Dollands Moor or Ashford International station”?
Finally, the Explanatory Memorandum states that
“the transitory provisions … which provide for the continued recognition of European licences in Great Britain”
will continue in force
“until they expire at 11pm on 31 January 2022.”
It also says that the “current EU contingency legislation”, which provides for the continued recognition of GB operator licences in the French half of the tunnel and immediately beyond,
“expires on 30 September 2021”.
Paragraph 7.8 of the draft Explanatory Memorandum states:
“If … the bilateral agreement is only ratified by both sides after the expiry period of the transitory provisions, the Regulations provide for the amendments to the transitory provisions not to take effect, as the transitory provisions will themselves be spent by that point.”
What happens at midnight on 30 September 2021, when the EU contingency legislation expires, if the bilateral agreement has not been ratified by then by both sides, and what happens at 11 pm on 31 January 2022, when the transitory provisions on the continued recognition in Great Britain of European licences cease to have effect, if the bilateral agreement has not been ratified by then by both sides?
Like the noble Lord, Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate, and the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, I await the Government’s response to the points that have been made in this debate with interest.
4.59 pm