My Lords, I will speak first to Amendment 8, which was tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, and is supported by the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, the noble Lord, Lord Holmes, and my noble friend Lord Blunkett, and to Amendment 15 which is tabled in my name. I thank the noble Baronesses for their amendment and for the productive discussion we had last week. As I said in Committee, I feel personally ashamed of the industry that I am so familiar with as so many deficiencies come out of the way that it treats passengers, particularly those in need of some assistance. Many of those deficiencies are a result of the fragmented structure of the privatised railway.
The noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, has shown me and described to me the plethora of apps that you need to buy tickets, the differences in how they work, what they do and whether they enable you to book a seat, a wheelchair space or a ticket for the whole of your journey. I am shocked by it, and I cannot bear for her to show me much more, because all she would do is show me more apps that work differently from those that she has already shown me. We cannot and should not tolerate that. The lack of consistency in train design has been highlighted today, as has the lack of reliable, accurate information about whether crucial facilities such as lifts and accessible toilets are working, and there are other issues.
Looking ahead to the wider railways Bill, establishing Great British Railways will provide the opportunity, for the first time in three decades, to begin to take a coherent approach to these matters. Some of them can be done quickly, some of them we can start now and some of them will, by virtue of the longevity of rolling stock and structures, take a long time, but if we do not start, we will never achieve them. However, I also agree that the noble Baronesses and the many disabled passengers on whose behalf they speak should not have to wait for Great British Railways to come along before we start to improve things, so, as I discussed with the noble Baronesses last week, the Government have tabled an amendment and we also have a number of verbal commitments that I shall place on record in the House today.
First, the Government will work with the disabled community to develop and publish an accessibility road map that will explain the actions we intend to
take to improve things for disabled people or others requiring assistance in advance of GBR being set up. We are not waiting for it to do that. The road map will suggest how the Government can work with the industry to prevent situations like those we have heard about in this House so far. As discussed, it will cover important matters that the noble Baronesses have raised with me. They include measuring and reporting on lift reliability and maintenance, providing confirmation and clarity about the legal obligation of operators to provide every disabled person with assistance when travelling whether or not a pre-booking has been made, and improving consistency in the service provided to disabled people across the board. We will engage with the disabled community on the development of the road map to ensure that when it is finished, it works for them.
Secondly, I commit before the House that this Government will provide the funding to develop phase 5 of the passenger assist app. As the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, knows from our previous discussions, I have made it clear and will continue to make it clear to those involved that the development of this next phase of the programme must be done in consultation with the noble Baronesses and representatives of disabled people to ensure that it delivers the assistance that people deserve and addresses their needs.
Finally, we have tabled Amendment 15, which is before the House today. It amends the Equality Act 2010 to make it clear that publicly owned train companies are subject to the public sector equality duty. Although it is the Government’s view that the public sector equality duty already applies to publicly owned train operating companies, we are concerned that that is currently not as clear as it needs to be. By adding them to the list of public authorities in the Act, we will ensure that there can be no mistake. Network Rail and Transport for London are already named in the Act, but train operating companies previously were not, which is something that, if this amendment is agreed, we will remedy.
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It is the intention of this Government to send a clear signal to train operating companies that they cannot ignore their legal duties to support disabled passengers and to ensure that disabled passengers have proper access to the railway as they need and deserve. Given this amendment and the commitments that I have made today, I hope that the noble Baroness will withdraw her amendment and support the Government’s amendment instead. I look forward to continuing to work with her and those who signed the amendment on this matter over the coming months and years.
I thank the noble Baronesses, Lady Randerson and Lady Scott of Needham Market, for Amendment 11. Let me make it absolutely clear to this House that the intention of this Bill and of the rail reform programme is to create a railway that works better for passengers. The changes made under this Bill, and further reforms, will be passenger-focused, because we know that this is what has been lacking for years. The Secretary of State has already set out that she considers her role to be passenger-in-chief of the railway, championing passengers every day, and that this Bill is the first step towards a railway that works for everyone who travels on it.
I confirm that, as I agreed with the noble Baronesses, Lady Randerson, Lady Pidgeon, Lady Scott of Needham Market and Lady Brinton, the consultation I have already referred to, delivered in advance of the wider railways Bill, will contain proposals for the passenger standards authority and how it will monitor performance for passengers. It will present the opportunity for those in this House and beyond to provide views on how this watchdog should operate. I will be delighted to discuss this with noble Lords in more detail once the consultation is launched.
I confirm that, as we work with the bodies that will be impacted by the proposed passenger standards authorities—the Office of Rail and Road, Transport Focus and the Rail Ombudsman—we will look at any opportunities to improve things for passengers in the short-term before the passenger standards authority has formally launched. I met Transport Focus yesterday on just that matter. I urge the noble Baroness to withdraw the amendment.