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Channel Tunnel Rail Link (Supplementary Provisions) Bill

moved Amendment No. 1: 1: Before Clause 1, insert the following new Clause— ““Regulation of the rail link (1) From the day twelve months after this Act comes into force— (a) any railway undertaking operating on the rail link will be subject to regulation under the Railways Act 1993 (c. 43), the Transport Act 2000 (c. 38), the Railways Act 2005 (c. 14) and the Railways Infrastructure (Access and Management) Regulations 2005 (S.I. 2005/3049), and (b) any reference to a ““rail link facility”” in those Regulations shall cease to apply. (2) In subsection (1) ““rail link”” has the same meaning as in the 1996 Act.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, it was nice to listen to the finale of the Climate Change Bill and to hear the congratulations which followed it and the unanimity described. In this case, the Minister faces opposition from all sides of the House. In Grand Committee, the main point the Minister made concerned getting the best deal for the taxpayer. I have reread that debate and the only plausible argument—it is not a sound argument—put forward by the Minister concerned the independence of regulation. In the debate following the report of the European Committee, his noble friend Lord Jones of Birmingham said: "““On regulation of the railway sector, I entirely agree that the focus should be on free, undistorted, liberalised and competitive markets. In the same way that the Government have influenced the energy sector with a view to opening it up, so we will continue, I assure the House, to work with the European Commission in pushing for a better regulated and more competitive railway sector. The Government would like to see greater regulatory co-operation across the European Union. The key is co-operation; the key is independence of regulators””.—[Official Report, 14/3/08; col. 1705.]" On the day of that debate we saw the noble Baroness, Lady Vadera, in her office. She reiterated the Government’s commitment to independent regulation. She banged the table and said, ““That is what we believe in””. In the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill, the next Bill to come before the House, the noble Baroness, Lady Vadera, has tabled an amendment to Clause 71. Amendment No. 102 provides for the independence of the economic regulators of the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority, the Office of Fair Trading and the Office of Rail Regulation. In all, five bodies have been excepted from the general regime laid down in the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill which applies to other regulators. These regulators have been excepted because each of them was set up by statute and their duties are clearly defined in statute. These duties include granting access rights and reviewing the efficiency with which the infrastructure operator conducts its business. If the regulators feel that an infrastructure operator is charging too much or is being inefficient, they say so. It is not a question of saying so when it suits the department, which we all know can be a changing feast; the department may or may not make up its mind, this year, next year or sometime never. The rail regulator has to produce a quinquennial review to a very strict timetable. The Minister’s arguments have turned on two things. On the question of the independence of the regulator, the Government are speaking with two distinct voices. It is incompatible that you should argue in this Bill for the department to carry out the regulation and argue for the independence of regulators in another Bill. In Grand Committee, I repeated that I had been told by a significant and serious potential purchaser that it would rather have the competent, consistent regulation of the Office of Rail Regulation than the kind of regulation that would undoubtedly be operated by the department as part of the political process, which could change, not change or not be issued. Anyone who invests wants certainty and the potential purchaser would choose to be regulated by the Office of Rail Regulation, which it has become used to and which operates with other rail regulators in Europe. The noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, may have something further to say on this. I am sure the noble Lord would never accuse me of being a half-hearted friend of the railways. I am absolutely consistent in my support of the railways. I have received in the past few weeks—they passed through his hands—some terrible, evasive answers which have not given information, given misleading information or given information that does not answer the question. We want satisfaction on this issue. When the Minister responds, I hope he will either give us satisfaction or say that he will take the matter away, talk to other Ministers and come back with a formula that satisfies us. This is a serious issue and I am not playing around. I beg to move.