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Crossrail Bill [Instruction No. 2]

The answer to the hon. Gentleman is that the Select Committee will decide what it will and will not hear. Yes, it will be able to hear petitions, but it will not be able to decide to truncate the railway. I do not think that the hon. Gentleman and I were at cross purposes in July. Having read what I said at the time, I think that I made myself reasonably clear in this context. At column 1127, we were discussing these representations in the context of the hon. Gentleman’s amendment, which was designed to terminate the railway at Liverpool Street. I made the point that our proposition stacked up, both operationally and in economic terms. It will certainly be up to the Select Committee to decide whether it hears the petitions, and I am sure that it will try to be as liberal as it can in that regard. However, unless we give it some instruction on the parameters of the Bill, we will be in some difficulty. I appreciate that the hon. Gentleman will not be satisfied with that, and as I said a few moments ago, that is inevitable. If we do not get something manageable, however, we will get nothing at all.