My Lords, I put my name to Amendment 18 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Wallace of Saltaire. I support everything he said. I am worried about the powers that the Government want to keep for themselves. I apologise to the Committee for not being here earlier; I was having a discussion with Ministers on the future railway structure, on which I believe there will be legislation this autumn. To some extent, that pre-empts what is covered by Amendment 18, which is to do with public passenger transport services. It is not just about trains; it includes buses and probably many other things as well.
5.30 pm
It is quite clear that Ministers want to see competitive tendering, which is the normal way of getting good value for money. I cannot see any reason why buses, trains or the air service, which is in a later amendment, should not be put out to competitive tendering. There may be reasons for this, but we need the Minister’s explanation, because it all sounds so easy: “Everything will go fine. Ministers can be trusted”. I am sure that they can, but we do not know what will happen in five years’ time, when things could be very different. I believe that there will be a good reason for not applying the principle of competitive tendering in the railway legislation—the buses are slightly different—but we need the Minister to explain why all of these powers are necessary. I hope we can persuade him that a small reduction in the powers would give us better scrutiny and make sure that everything was above board.