Channel Tunnel Rail Link (Supplementary Provisions) Bill

Given that my amendment has been signed not only by my hon. Friends the Members for Christchurch and for Wimbledon but by the hon. Member for Leicester, South (Sir Peter Soulsby), to whom I am obliged, it would not be stretching the truth to say that it has the ring of an all-party amendment. Clause 4 gives the Office of Rail Regulation power to charge fees, stating that"““the Office of Rail Regulation may by notice require a rail link undertaker to pay a fee in respect of the exercise of any of the Office of Rail Regulation's functions in relation to the rail link.”” " My concern relates to subsection (2), which states"““The amount of a fee under subsection (1) in any case shall be—""(a) such amount as the Office of Rail Regulation considers to represent the costs reasonably incurred by it in the exercise of the function in relation to the rail link””." As I said in Committee, what worries me is that, in effect, the Office of Rail Regulation will be advocate, judge and jury in its own cause. It will surely never admit that the fee it wishes to charge is unreasonable. Therefore, there is no objective test of whether the fee imposed is reasonable to a third party.