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Road Pricing

: I am grateful to the Minister for that answer. After the rejection in the Edinburgh referendum, I was worried that there were concerns about the political risk attached to this agenda. Concern has been expressed about the lead being given by the Government on technology, which seems hugely important to this issue, particularly in the context of a phased approach where the Government wish to encourage local schemes, but with a view to that ultimately fitting into a national programme. The technology at play here is fundamental. It has been put to me that not enough lead has been given by the Government on standardisation. The Committee's report is explicit on that:"““the Government should establish a national framework within which local authorities can design the finer detail of the scheme . . . The Secretary of State told us that he would seek to get some standardisation agreed in the near future:""‘That is why I say that if we were going to go down this road, we would want to get that standardisation in at the start, otherwise it would make it extremely expensive.'””" Can the Minister respond to that apparent concern about the lead being given by the Government on the standardisation of technology? My over-riding concern is about the lack of strong leadership in this debate. I fear that momentum will be lost. An interesting idea has been introduced. A debate has been called, but I sense a lack of momentum and a potentially wasted opportunity.