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Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

The present chairman of the Office of Rail Regulation wrote to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster protesting about the scope of Part 1. He has warned of exactly the same hazards of which the former rail regulator warned—the jeopardy to private investor confidence created by the power of a Minister to interfere with the independence or jurisdiction of the principal economic regulators. I have not heard anything from the Minister that has changed my opinion that he is likely to be able to do that again. He may say that there is no intention to do so, but words cannot bind a future Government. If that is what he is telling me that the Bill will do, I cannot see that that is the case.