My Lords, I am grateful for these amendments, which certainly improve the Bill. I congratulate the Minister on the way she has conducted herself at the various stages of the Bill and on bringing forward these amendments in response to the arguments put forward in Committee. Those arguments were put forward particularly forcefully by my noble friends Lord Whitty, Lord Faulkner and Lord Berkeley. As the Minister will know, we started off with a great many reservations about the nature of the Bill and we are very pleased that the Government have gone some of the way towards making it slightly more difficult for multiple strategic highways companies to be set up. Amendment 16 ensures that Parliament will have a say on this, which is very much to be welcomed. I particularly appreciate Amendment 1, which ensures that the strategic highways company has regard to the environment and to the safety of users of the highways. These were issues about which we were very concerned on the Opposition Benches and we are pleased that the Minister has seen fit to propose amendments to the Bill as it then was.
However, it is still the case—as I am going to speak only once I hope the Minister will forgive me for moving a little further on—that there are questions which the Government have not adequately considered. An example is the needs of local roads in dealing with the challenges of huge numbers of potholes and the projected increase in traffic. The fact is that it is not the strategic system which creates the majority of problems for road users but local roads. The same applies to safety, where the Government have presided over a large reduction in road safety budgets and further action may be required. Among others, I obviously mention the issue of cyclists. That may seem marginal in a Bill that is predominantly concerned with strategic highways but, if one is talking about safety, one has to
look at the growing use of cycles on our roads. That is greatly to be welcomed in many respects—provided that cyclists obey the law, I hasten to add—but we must also ensure that we do not get the kind of significant increase in cycling accidents that we have seen in recent years.
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It would also be helpful if the Minister would provide further details on what is meant by—this is the phrase used—
“have regard to the effect of the exercise of those functions on … the environment”.
What will that mean in practice? Only today, the European Court of Justice called on the United Kingdom to establish the air quality action plan, which sets out measures to tackle air pollution. We know that traffic is inevitably a great dimension of the problem of air pollution.
A number of issues elsewhere in this part of the Bill are still unresolved. First, the process of setting the first road investment strategy looks somewhat rushed to us. It is clearly essential that the Government get this right, given the importance of this infrastructure development over a long period. Secondly, we are not entirely clear about the governance of the company—it still seems confused to us. Will it be through a licence that is not really a licence or will it be through statutory guidance? Those questions were not answered with total accuracy in Committee.
Finally, the fundamental question at the heart of this part of the Bill remains totally unanswered. It concerns the creation of the new company, which is what the Bill starts off with. I mention to noble Lords who may not have followed its progression in the greatest detail that one significant clause on fracking was added after we had cleared four parts of the Bill. Of course, it is difficult to respond when a Bill has no coherent pattern and has so many aspects to it. However, this point stands out. Is the creation of a new company really the best way to secure long-term funding for roads? I still suggest that the Minister has not been fully convincing on this point. I am sure that when the Bill goes to the other place the Members there will want to test this proposition further. But I am grateful to the Minister for the progress she has made thus far.