My Lords, deliberate fare-dodging has no place on our railways and is being tackled, but it is vital that passengers are treated fairly and consistently. We are urgently considering the helpful and comprehensive Office of Rail and Road report, with its sensible recommendations, and will respond to it as soon as possible. In the meantime, we continue to make it easier for passengers to buy the right fare, to make tickets on an increasingly unified publicly owned railway more inter-available, and to develop plans for Great British Railways to sell tickets online.

We are committed to simplifying the over complicated fares and ticketing system. Under our plans to bring train operators into a publicly owned Great British Railways, we will be taking a fresh look at single operator fares, so that we can create a simpler fares and ticketing system for passengers.

On the East Coast Main Line, London North-Eastern Railway (LNER) have ensured that its advance and 70-minute flex tickets are accepted by other relevant train operators, to allow passengers to complete their journeys.

As announced in December by the Department for Transport Operator, LNER, Northern and TransPennine Trains will allow customers to travel on each other’s services at no extra cost during any short-notice and on-the-day disruptions.

My Lords, the east coast main line timetable change is putting into effect the fruits of a £4 billion investment into the route since 2019. The timetable was consulted on in 2021, and feedback from that was incorporated. After a lengthy period, and following an industry task force review, the Secretary of State and I have agreed to the delivery of the timetable in December 2025.

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has a jurisdiction beyond the UK and serves as the final court of appeal for many Commonwealth and other jurisdictions. From time to time, the work of the Judicial Committee has been augmented with the jurisprudence and expertise brought by appellate judges from jurisdictions beyond the UK.

The Lord Chancellor welcomes and approves Lord Reed’s proposal to invite judges outside the UK to sit on the Judicial Committee, and the necessary work is in train.

The analogue landline system, also known as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is a privately-owned telecoms network and the decision to upgrade it has been taken by the telecoms industry. The industry’s decision to upgrade the PSTN is due to necessity, as the network is increasingly unreliable and prone to failure, with some telecoms companies finding it difficult to source certain spare parts required to maintain or repair connections. Therefore, keeping customers on the ageing PSTN system presents risks in itself.

DSIT officials engage with Communications Providers on a regular basis to understand the plans they have in place for the transition. Ofcom, the UK’s telecommunications regulator, has also issued guidance on how telecoms companies should fulfil their regulatory obligations in the event of a power cut.

This guidance states that providers should have at least one solution available that enables access to emergency organisations for a minimum of one hour in the event of a power outage in the premises. These are minimum standards, and in practice many providers are offering solutions which exceed them, such as longer life battery back-up units, 4G enabled handsets or satellite enabled communication units. The DSIT Secretary of State also asked Ofcom to review the general resilience of telecommunications services in the event of prolonged power outages. In response, in December 2023, Ofcom launched a consultation on the resilience of the sector that includes a separate call for input on power backup for mobile radio access networks. The consultation stated that 65% of power outages lasted for less than 1 hour.

In December 2023, DSIT agreed a Charter of Commitments with the UK’s leading Communications Providers to secure additional commitments to protect vulnerable consumers through the transition process. As part of the Charter, Communication Providers have agreed to work towards going beyond the standard minimum of one hour resilience.

My Lords, the department holds regular discussions with its operators to ensure that they continue to respond to changes in demand, balancing capacity and reliability with value for money for taxpayers. As part of the December 2023 timetable change, the department agreed that London North Eastern Railway should provide some additional Sunday services and the Rail North Partnership agreed some reductions to TransPennine Express services to stabilise the service while it completes its driver training programme.

My Lords, the Government have consulted on a proposal to designate five pilot highly protected marine areas. The Secretary of State announced this morning the Government’s decision to designate three of these sites. The Lindisfarne site will not be taken forward. A Written Ministerial Statement has been deposited in both Houses.

The telecoms industry is retiring the Public Switched Telephone Network as the old technology reaches the end of its serviceable life, with landlines being replaced by Voice over Internet Protocol services. The decision to upgrade the telephone network has been taken by the telecoms industry and not the Government. Ofcom, the independent telecoms regulator, has issued guidance on how telecoms companies can fulfil their regulatory obligation to ensure that their VoIP customers have access to the emergency services during a power outage. This guidance was prepared following consultation with Ofgem and the industry, looking at data on average power outages among other factors.

This guidance states that providers should have at least one solution available which enables access to emergency organisations for a minimum of one hour in the event of a power outage in the premises, and that the solution should be suitable for customers’ needs and should be offered free of charge to those who are at risk because they are dependent on their landline. This might include relying on the mobile network, which has a high degree of power resilience, or using a battery back-up unit to provide power. Ofcom’s full guidance is available on its website here.

As part of our standard procedure for large incidents, DCMS is working with Ofcom and the telecoms sector to complete a Post-Incident Review on the response to Storm Arwen. Similarly, BEIS as the Lead Government Department for energy is undertaking its own review; both these reports will identify lessons and develop actions to improve responses for future events.

My Lords, the east coast main line is a crucial route for passengers and freight and is already playing a critical role in helping passengers return to rail, as well as leading the revenue recovery vital to restoring the financial health of the railway. The department holds weekly discussions with Network Rail and train operators, which are focused on modifying the original proposals in response to stakeholder feedback and mitigating outstanding risks to delivering the timetable reliably.

In England, licences - for the purpose of preventing serious damage to land, or any other form of property - to kill or take badgers, or to interfere with a badger sett are granted by Natural England (NE). NE is authorised, on behalf of the Secretary of State, to grant licences for this purpose.

In situations where badgers are causing damage to cemeteries or burial grounds, NE can provide case-specific advice to the local authority if requested, and this may include a site visit where this would be beneficial. If the damage is caused by foraging activities, then advice will normally relate to preventive measures that do not require a licence, such as the use of fencing and other proofing. Where the sett itself is causing damage to graves, then an application for a licence to exclude badgers from the sett may be appropriate.

Licences will only be granted where there are no satisfactory alternatives, the action to be licensed is proportionate to the scale of the problem and the licensed action will contribute to resolving the problem.

General guidance on the protection afforded to badgers and licensing activities impacting badgers is available at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/badgers-protection-surveys-and-licences.

Defra has no current plans to issue any further guidance to local authorities about the control of badgers in cemeteries or burial grounds.

Under the proposed timetable London North Eastern Railway (LNER) passenger numbers are expected to increase as a result of shorter journey times between key destinations, supporting the Government’s decarbonisation plans. It will also enable the addition of 30 per cent more trains per hour and these additional services would provide a significant increase in capacity creating opportunities for increased revenue.

My Lords, my department has had regular discussions with London North Eastern Railway about the May 2022 timetable proposals for the east coast main line. LNER and the department are committed to improving services for passengers served by this important route, and I encourage all noble Lords with an interest to engage with LNER’s public consultation to ensure that their views are considered.

My Lords, I first apologise to the Lord Speaker because I stood while he was standing—we are all grappling with masks and other things at the moment.

We continue to assess whether the conclusions of the comprehensive review of 2014, which of course the noble Lord, Lord Beith, oversaw, remain valid. It is not possible to find a practical way to allow the use of intercept evidence in court. The Government will keep this position under review.

My Lords, in relation to the Question posed by the noble Lord on behalf of the noble Lord, Lord Beith, we spent more than a quarter of £1 billion on recovery in the last financial year, making court buildings safe, rolling out new technology for remote hearings and opening 60 Nightingale courtrooms. Although there is further to go, this has made a difference. In the Crown Courts, we are completing around 2,000 cases each week, which is the same as before the pandemic.

Following the Planning for the Future White Paper consultation last year on changes to the planning system, the Government continues to engage with a wide range of stakeholders as we develop our detailed proposals. This includes reforms to the planning framework for listed buildings to ensure their significance is conserved while allowing, where appropriate, sympathetic changes to support their continued use and address climate change.

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (North East of England) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1010) were laid 5:30pm on 17 September 2020, came into force on 18 September 2020 and published online shortly before 5:41pm on 17 September 2020.

These Regulations were subsequently amended by the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Protected Areas) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1019), which came into force on 22 September 2020.

The department is unable to comment on individual cases related to the Office for Students (OfS) registration. The department supports the OfS as an effective independent regulator in its aim of safeguarding a fair market for students of all backgrounds to undertake higher education. Neither the department nor our ministers can intervene in judicial reviews of the decisions of the OfS.

My Lords, there are three possible sources of additional train services between these two stations. LNER is extending two Newcastle services to Edinburgh in September and plans one further extension in December; TransPennine Express plans to extend its Liverpool to Newcastle service to Edinburgh from December 2019, adding a further 13 services Monday to Saturday and 10 services on Sunday; and by December 2021 FirstGroup will start its open access trains, which will provide five trains per day in each direction between Edinburgh and London.

A decision that a court should sit within a prison when a defendant refuses to attend court in person or by video link is for the judiciary. If such a decision is made HMCTS , in conjunction with HMPPS Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service makes the necessary arrangements.

The Court has no legal power to direct a prison officer (including a Governor) to use force or to compel a prisoner to attend court.

My Lords, as set out in the political declaration, both the UK and the EU have committed to, and stand ready to begin, negotiations on the future relationship immediately after exit. Those discussions cannot begin until the withdrawal agreement has been signed and the UK is a third country. We will schedule talks as soon as possible once that signing has taken place.