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Railway Safety Levy Regulations 2006

rose to move, That the draft regulations laid before the House on 16 February be approved [19th Report from the Joint Committee]. The noble Lord said: My Lords, the Office of Rail Regulation will take over from the Health and Safety Commission and the Health and Safety Executive as the health and safety regulator and enforcement body in relation to railways on 1 April. These regulations will permit the ORR to cover its costs for these activities by means of a levy on the rail industry. The ORR’s health and safety responsibility will cover all forms of rail transport, so the regulations apply to London Underground, heritage railways and tramways, as well as the national rail network. The origins of the levy go back to the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003. Section 105 of that Act amended the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to enable regulations to be made whereby the HSC and HSE would be able to raise a levy to cover all or part of their railway-related work. It included a provision that the first regulations,"““shall not be made unless a draft has been laid before and approved by resolution of each House of Parliament””." Today’s regulations are the first to be made since the passage of the 2003 Act and that is why both Houses need to approve them. The principle that the costs of regulation are met by the industry being regulated is well and widely established. The mechanisms for apportioning those costs, however, present somewhat more of a challenge. The objective is to develop something which is fair and transparent and which broadly reflects where costs fall. The regulations place an obligation on providers of railway services to pay a levy to the ORR for the purpose of meeting the cost of the ORR’s policy-making and enforcement activities in relation to railway health and safety. The regulations enable the ORR to determine certain matters in relation to the levy, such as the total amount to be imposed and the criteria for assessing the proportion of the levy to be paid by a particular railway service provider. The ORR can request information on turnover from railway service providers. The ORR is allowed under the regulations to make assumptions where a railway service provider fails to supply the requested information. The regulations have been subject to extensive consultation. The principle of the levy was generally accepted. Concerns were raised about the impact on smaller companies. I know that my noble friend Lord Faulkner has a great interest in heritage railways, and I have no doubt that he will make that point in this short debate. I shall not go into greater detail on these matters. Suffice it to say that we consulted widely before we produced the regulations. Accordingly, I commend them to the House. I beg to move. Moved, That the draft regulations laid before the House on 16 February be approved [19th Report from the Joint Committee].—(Lord Davies of Oldham.)