Infrastructure Bill [HL]

My Lords, Amendment 32 is designed to probe two issues: the motivation behind the move to a strat...

My Lords, I support my noble friends on this amendment. It may well be that in her reply the Mini...

My Lords, I take this opportunity to thank my noble friend and her private office for the help th...

My Lords, I support the amendment because it raises wider issues. Although I do not want to go ov...

My Lords, let me deal with a couple of issues. I will be talking about fines under the next group...

My Lords, the Minister has produced the best reply possible while giving little hard information ...

Moved by

Lord Bradshaw

34: Clause 5, page 3, line 32, leave out “Secretary of State” ...

This brings us to another clause and concerns the payment of fines, to which reference was just m...

My Lords, I agree with much of what the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, has said, but of course the pr...

My Lords, I also support these amendments. It is very difficult to see how the Secretary of State...

My Lords, I have sufficient sympathy with these amendments that I hope we will be able to attract...

I thank your Lordships. I want to make clear that the Office of Rail Regulation in its role as a ...

I am grateful to the noble Baroness. I want to go back to the performance criteria that she menti...

What we are doing now is basically setting up implementation vehicles. That is the purpose of thi...

I thank the noble Baroness for that reply. I do not see the difference between the SHC and Networ...

Moved by

Lord Whitty

41: Clause 8, page 5, line 24, at end insert—

“( ) In all ...

My Lords, I will be brief on this amendment because the main discussion of Passenger Focus is in ...

I am going to confuse the Committee because my Amendment 42, which we will come on to shortly, su...

It sounds a very good name. However, might there not be some confusion with another body with the...

My Lords, I think that this amendment deserves full-hearted support. What has raised a great deal...

My Lords, I think that we may again be confusing a legal name and a trade name. For example, ther...

I put it to the Minister that the purpose of having this kind of discussion in a Committee format...

Perhaps I may just explain. We have had a number of conversations about the wider community who m...

My Lords, the Bill refers to the Passengers’ Council, which is clearly wrong, and we have all com...

I should point out to the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, that it is the Passengers’ Council today; th...

Would it be open to the body to change its own name for popular use? I cite the example of the bo...

The noble Lord, Lord Jenkin of Roding, is exactly right. Passengers’ Council is the legal name of...

Perhaps the Minister could clarify one point. I thought that the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, gave a ...

My Lords, I assumed that the Minister was indicating that of course there would need to be legisl...

So many of your Lordships have been really helpful on this point. I clearly have not been very cl...

I think that the Minister has been very clear in her latest remarks, but the point that I would m...

Moved by

Lord Berkeley

42: Clause 8, page 5, line 25, leave out subsections (1) and (...

My Lords, in moving Amendment 42, I shall also speak to some of the other amendments in this grou...

My Lords, I warmly support what my noble friend has said. I should say at the outset of our delib...

My Lords, we have major doubts about whether the Passengers’ Council will provide an adequate for...

My Lords, I listened to the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, with great interest, and I have been ponde...

My Lords, if this Committee is doing nothing else, it is giving us a wonderful opportunity to hea...

I do not want to prolong this, but is that not the function of the planning system rather than of...

My Lords, I, too, have memories of motorways. The M25 went around the north of the constituency t...

My Lords, I do not want to prolong this discussion for much longer, but some of us, in setting ou...

My Lords, I have tabled two amendments but I want to comment briefly on what has been said. I fin...

My Lords, in this set of amendments we are dealing with the watchdog. We will come on to the moni...

My Lords, perhaps I may just clarify that. It will certainly be the company’s first responsibilit...

My understanding is that “Road User Focus” will be able to see right through to the complaints to...

My Lords, I wonder whether I may probe the Minister a bit more. With the railways, on most trains...

My Lords, just as the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, was quite right to emphasise the importance of the...

I would say first to the noble Lord, Lord Judd, that the watchdog is just one part of the total f...

My Lords, I am grateful to all noble Lords who have taken part in this very interesting debate. W...

Moved by

Lord Whitty

43: Clause 8, page 5, line 25, after “must” insert “establish a ...

My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendment 45. Amendment 43 deals with the role of the Passengers’...

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, is absolutely right that Passenger Focus also works on bus...

My Lords, at least we have on the record the assurance that it will be funded—and, one hopes, on ...

Moved by

Lord Berkeley

52: Clause 8, page 6, line 12, at end insert—

“Network R...

My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendment 52A. This is to do with freedom of information. In Clau...

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley. This is an opportunity to clarify some points on...

I am grateful to the Minister for that helpful reply. With regard to Network Rail, I think that s...

Moved by

Lord Whitty

53: Clause 9, page 6, line 20, at end insert—

“(c) proposi...

My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendment 58 in this group.

The first amendment is to make ...

My Lords, I have amendments grouped with those of my noble friend Lord Whitty, and I agree with a...

My Lords, I have tabled two amendments in this group, but I shall speak to the whole group becaus...

My Lords, I wish to lend strong support to Amendment 56 in the name of my noble friend Lord Berke...

My Lords, frankly, I am not very optimistic about the messages that are being put forward from th...

My Lords, I thank your Lordships for a wide range of amendments that address the monitor at the O...

The Minister is absolutely right that there are differences, but a specific role of the ORR—its r...

Clearly there are similarities, which is one reason why we turned to the ORR—it has a lot of expe...

My Lords, I have found this discussion a little bizarre. Earlier, I felt that my noble friend Lor...

For clarity, is the noble Lord saying that it is his advice to his party that those decisions sho...

No, my Lords, I am saying that the policy has to be decided by the Secretary of State. I would qu...

In the letter that the Minister sent me about practice in Europe, she makes reference to Sweden. ...

My Lords, perhaps our Swedish colleagues can show us the way, and I bow to the knowledge of the n...

Moved by

Lord Whitty

59: Clause 10, page 7, line 11, at end insert—

“( ) Where ...

I am sure that the Minister will have no difficulty in accepting Amendment 59 because I think she...

My Lords, I will resist this being put into the Bill because it will be in the supporting documen...

My Lords, I thank the Minister for putting that assurance on the record so clearly. I never quite...

My Lords, if Amendment 61A is agreed, I cannot call Amendment 61AA due to pre-emption.

Amen...

Moved by

Lord Davies of Oldham

61A: Clause 13, page 9, line 25, leave out from “repea...

My Lords, we come to a very serious part of the Bill. I doubt whether there is any Minister who d...

My Lords, most of these amendments concern the comments made by the Delegated Powers and Regulato...

My Lords, the Government have made a shot at giving a response, but I do not need to point out to...

Moved by

Baroness Kramer

61AA: Clause 13, page 9, leave out line 26 and insert “the a...

Moved by

Baroness Kramer

61C: Clause 14, page 9, leave out line 34 and insert “the ap...

Moved by

Lord Faulkner of Worcester

63: After Clause 15, insert the following new Cla...

My Lords, in moving Amendment 63, I remind the Committee that we in this House have debated the r...

My Lords, I support all that the noble Lord opposite has said. I have been here for only 15 years...

My Lords, I have to say that this is the first time that I have heard the argument advanced by th...

My Lords, I also support my noble friend’s amendment. The situation is a classic case of restrict...

My Lords, like the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, I have heard my noble friend Lord Faulkner wax lyrica...

I point out to noble Lords and the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Oldham, that this issue appears to ...

I was not being critical at all. I was being anticipatorily hopeful.

I say to the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner, that we have a great deal of sympathy with the issues tha...

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister, and I shall come to what she said in a moment. First, ho...

Moved by

Lord Bradshaw

64: After Clause 15, insert the following new Clause—

“R...

This is the last of the road amendments but it is not the least. There are great problems with ou...

My Lords, these are interesting amendments which, as the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, has said, cov...

I support the Minister looking closely at the amendment from my noble friend Lord Bradshaw for tw...

My Lords, my noble friend Lord Bradshaw is nothing if not creative in his response to transport p...

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Oldham, is quite right: this amendment is a creative ste...

I drafted the amendment rather carefully so that it does not commit this Government to doing anyt...

Moved by

Baroness Parminter

64A: Clause 16, page 10, line 29, after “9” insert “, exc...

My Lords, after the destruction of habitats, the introduction of invasive non-native species is p...

My Lords, I very much support my noble friend’s amendment, to which I have added my name. I was l...

My Lords, I, too, strongly support this section of the Bill. It was very encouraging this morning...

If I may interrupt the noble Lord, in Cornwall recently—last year, in fact—a company with which I...

I am sure that the appetites of the Corns are something to be praised in this respect. My point i...

My Lords, I bow to the expertise of previous speakers because I am no great expert in species. Th...

My Lords, I have a great deal of sympathy with the main outline of the speech of the noble Barone...

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Davies, is absolutely right: £1.8 billion is the estimate of the c...

I thank the Minister for those comments. It is encouraging that the comments from around the Comm...

Moved by

Lord Davies of Oldham

66: Clause 16, page 11, line 25, at end insert—

...

My Lords, I have quite a lot to say about this next amendment so I shall speed up as I respect th...

My Lords, I need to be rapid in my response, so let me simply say we think an annual assessment o...

My Lords, that reassurance is noted. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Moved by

Baroness Kramer

69: Clause 16, page 13, line 36, at end insert—

“(2) U...

My Lords, Amendment 69 clarifies that there is no requirement on an owner, or provision for an en...

My Lords, it is fairly rare for the Government to produce amendments unless they have been prompt...

Moved by

Baroness Kramer

70: Clause 16, page 14, leave out line 12 and insert—

...