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Road Pricing

: That is why we took, in the first instance, the decision to move ahead in the way proposed. The Secretary of State told the Committee that he was working with the road haulage industry to introduce measures. Unfortunately, in the same week, the Freight Transport Association said that it would launch a legal challenge over what is effectively a subsidy of foreign hauliers. If the Minister straightens that situation out, it will help us to know where we are, at least. The lorry road user charge was scrapped to avoid there being two parallel charging schemes, but it is clear that the Government are still going ahead with individual, private arrangements. If they are to go ahead with a system of national, distance-based road charging, will they buy out the M6 toll contract? If not, why not? If not, do they intend somehow to harmonise the dues that would be payable? If so, what would be the cost to the taxpayer? Have the Government decided to ignore the results of the consultation on the M6 extension, ““M6: Giving Motorists a Choice””? If so, why did they bother with it in the first place? I am not sure that there is any defence on that. My problem is, overall, political. The Secretary of State has openly led the debate on road user charging since the beginning of the year, which is useful. It is helpful that he has been prepared to make public some of the difficulties as well as the advantages. The Government also need—to use a fashionable phrase—to clarify some of their policies, so that we know exactly what they propose. It is clear that congestion will be with us as long as everybody wants to use their car for trips that they think are essential, and the number of people purchasing cars rises every year. Any policy decided at governmental level will have enormous implications, not just for public transport, but for our road-building programmes, our expansion of services and certainly how we plan to integrate any local authority congestion schemes with an overall road-pricing toll scheme. I do not believe that those are simple questions or that they will be easy to resolve.