I will indeed take option A from the noble Lord, Lord Tunnicliffe. I accept that we do not want our powers to be overreaching. I believe there is a good justification for these powers, and I will happily read into the record the circumstances in which the Government believe it would be justified to use these powers.
I will quickly address the amendment from the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley. I do not believe he will press it to a vote because it would remove all of Clause 11 and then it would remove the guidance for the harbour authorities, so it would be incredibly messy.
Let us focus on the second element of the concerns from the DPRRC. We have very carefully reflected on its recommendations. We have looked very carefully at the powers of direction for the Secretary of State in Clause 11. We have concluded that to remove them would significantly reduce the effectiveness of the Bill. These powers of direction form an important part of the compliance mechanism under the Bill. Without that power of direction given to the Secretary of State, there will be no means of correction if the harbour authorities do not exercise their powers under the Bill, or if they exercise their powers inappropriately. Given that noble Lords have raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest between harbour authorities’
commercial interests and statutory functions, these powers also provide a safeguard against this risk. I assure noble Lords that the power is not intended to have general effect to allow the Secretary of State simultaneously to direct all harbour authorities to exercise or not to exercise their powers under the Bill, or to exercise them in a particular way. Nor is it intended to modify the character of the Bill itself by means of direction.
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The policy intention is that this power would be used only in the following circumstances: first, to direct a harbour authority to request a national minimum wage equivalence declaration where it appears to the Secretary of State that it has the power to request a declaration under Clause 3(1) but has not done so; secondly, to direct a harbour authority not to request a national minimum wage equivalence declaration where doing so would disrupt key passenger services and supply chains critical for national resilience; thirdly, to direct a harbour authority to impose a surcharge where circumstances are such that it should do so under Clause 7(2) but has not done so; fourthly, to direct a harbour authority not to impose a surcharge where doing so would disrupt key passenger services and supply chains critical for national resilience; fifthly, to direct a harbour authority to impose a surcharge of an amount specified in the direction instead of the amount determined by the harbour authority’s tariff; sixthly, to direct a harbour authority to refuse access to a harbour where a surcharge has been imposed on an operator but it has not paid it; and, seventhly, to direct a harbour authority not to refuse access to a harbour or set conditions on the refusal of access—for example, with respect to timings—where the Secretary of State considers that the refusal of access would cause damage by disrupting key passenger services and supply chains critical for national resilience.
I hope that this is helpful in setting out the purpose of this power and provides some reassurance as to its application. I beg to move.