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'(1) The National Assembly for Wales may prepare a strategy for carrying out its functions in relation to railways and railway services.
(2) The National Assembly for Wales may from time to time revise that strategy.
(3) Where the National Assembly for Wales prepares or revises such a strategy, it must publish the strategy or revised strategy in such manner as they consider appropriate for bringing it to the attention of those likely to be affected by it.
(4) The reference in subsection (1) to the functions of the National Assembly for Wales in relation to railways and railway services includes, in particular, its functions under Part 1 of the 1993 Act and its functions under this Act.'.—[Mr. Llwyd]
Brought up, and read the First time.
Mr. Llwyd: I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.
Madam Deputy Speaker: With this, it will be convenient to take the following amendments:
No. 33, in clause 10, page 9, line 14, leave out "Wales-only", insert "any Welsh".
No. 36, in clause 12, page 11, line 13, at end insert—
'(da) the National Assembly for Wales.'
No. 38, in clause 22, page 21, line 2, at end insert—
'(aa) in relation to a proposal relating to services all of which are Wales-only services, means the National Assembly for Wales; and'.
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No. 39, in clause 23, page 22, line 9, at end insert—
'(aa) in relation to a proposal relating to services all of which are Wales-only services, means the National Assembly for Wales; and'.
No. 41, in clause 25, page 24, line 47, at end insert—
"(aa) in relation to a proposal relating to one or more services each of which is—
(i) a Wales-only service, or
(ii) a cross-border service in relation to which so much of the funding as is provided by a railway funding authority is funding provided by the National Assembly for Wales,
means the National Assembly for Wales; and".
No. 48, in clause 30, page 31, line 36, at end insert—
"(aa) in relation to a proposal relating to a station or part of a station that is wholly in Wales, means the National Assembly for Wales; and".
No. 49, in page 31, line 38, leave out 'and Wales'.
No. 50, in clause 31, page 32, line 45, at end insert—
'"(aa) in relation to a proposal relating to a station or part of a station that is wholly in Wales, means the National Assembly for Wales; and'.
No. 51, in page 32, line 47, leave out 'and Wales'.
No. 59, in schedule 9, page 114, line 19, at end insert—
'"(ba) where the relevant assets by reference to which the bye-laws are or were made are all Welsh assets, the National Assembly for Wales;
(bb) where some but not all of those assets are Welsh assets or include assets that are used partly in Wales and partly elsewhere, the Secretary of State and the National Assembly for Wales; and".'.
No. 57, in page 114, line 37, at end insert—
'(4) In sub-paragraph (1) "Welsh asset" means—
(a) an asset that is permanently situated in Wales; or
(b) an asset that is used only in Wales.
(5) In the case of bye-laws in relation to which both the Secretary of State and the National Assembly for Wales are the appropriate national authority—
(a) anything that must be done under this Schedule in relation to those bye-laws by the appropriate national authority must be done by them both, acting jointly;
(b) anything that may be done under this Schedule in relation to those bye-laws by the appropriate national authority may be done only by them both acting jointly; and
(c) any requirement of this Schedule in relation to those bye-laws to send something to the appropriate national authority is complied with only if that thing is sent both to the Secretary of State and to the National Assembly for Wales.'.
Mr. Llwyd:
I make no apology for spending a little time on new clause 9 and the amendments grouped with it. They were requested by the National Assembly for Wales, not because Plaid Cymru Members asked for them, but because the Economic Development and Transport Committee of the National Assembly, chaired by Christine Gwyther AM, a former new Labour Minister of the Assembly, was concerned that they should be included in the Bill. To make matters slightly worse, and to add insult to injury, the Assembly had requested overall control of the railways in a measure in the Queen's Speech, but that proposal was dispatched with very little regard.
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3.45 pm
Before I speak to the amendments, I wish to refer to a letter written by Christine Gwyther on 14 January 2005 to the Chairmen of the Railways Bill Committee. She says that her committee was
"very conscious that the timetable set for the Parliamentary process is very tight and that this has put your Committee under enormous pressure in its scrutiny of the Bill. While this is not a matter for you, my Members were disappointed that the timing of this most important piece of legislation allowed so little time for wider consideration, or for the National Assembly to consider the Bill in much detail . . . The Committee's overall view was that the Bill marked a major stage in the development of the Railways in Britain and provided an opportunity for a comprehensive transfer of powers over Welsh railways to the National Assembly. Members noted the substantial range of powers that it conferred on the Scottish Executive and were disappointed that the Secretary of State for Transport was retaining many of these powers in relation to Wales. A particular concern was the failure of the Bill to transfer to the National Assembly control over the infrastructure in Wales. Clearly, it is too late to make fundamental changes to the Bill, but there are two specific points which the Committee felt could easily be changed:
Members were concerned about the lack of control Wales would have over closures where the Assembly is not funding the rail service. Clauses 22 to 31 refer to National Authorities being notified of any closure proposal and then carrying out a consultation on this. However, while the Scottish Executive is the National Authority in Scotland, the Secretary of State for Transport would undertake this function in Wales. Members cannot see any reason why the National Assembly should not have this responsibility in Wales and urged you to amend the Bill accordingly.
"One other anomaly relates to the confirming of bye-laws. The National Assembly already has extensive powers in this regard and the Committee cannot see why it should not have the same powers as Scottish Ministers in relation to schedule 9. This could be achieved by amending Paragraph 1 of that schedule to include the National Assembly for Wales as the appropriate national authority for bye-laws relating to Welsh assets, with similar provisions to those relating to Scotland in relation to cross-border bye-laws."
I have quoted extensively from that letter since I believe that it is important not only in itself, but with regard to further issues. We are always told about the successful partnership between the National Assembly for Wales and this place and that the way in which legislation works, as and when it is necessary, is that it is called for by the Welsh Assembly and put in train by Ministers in this place. This is a classic example where the devolution process breaks down utterly. For whatever reason, the pleas of the Assembly, the cross-party committee and the letter penned by the ex-new Labour Minister who chairs that committee have been ignored utterly by the Committee in this place. Its members had the representations in good time to table amendments. Indeed, amendments were tabled, and they are now being discussed.
I have dealt with those points at length because I hope that somebody more kindly disposed to the devolution process in the other place will take them up. They are important if we are indeed going to refer to any form of partnership between the National Assembly for Wales and this place pro tem in any event.
I shall not read out the new clause, as other Members have important amendments to speak to later, but I wish to make a brief point. The new clause emulates the provision for Scotland and falls very well into the rest of
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the Bill, which gives the Assembly power to spend money on rail services. It calls for a railway strategy for Wales, which would guide decisions about where to put money and what money to put in. The Transport (Wales) Bill requires the Assembly to draw up a Wales transport strategy. A railway strategy could be a part of that, but in our view, it needs to be mentioned in the Railways Bill, as it needs to be an input into the Secretary of State's decisions about railways, particularly if the other amendments that we have tabled to strengthen the Assembly's powers are rejected.
Amendment No. 33 deletes "Wales-only" and inserts "any Welsh". The purport of that is to give the Assembly a consultation role in any proposed franchise agreements which include Welsh stations, for example Paddington to Swansea, rather than to confine it to services run entirely within Wales.
Amendment No. 36 inserts a new subsection and adds the Assembly to the list of bodies that can own railway assets following the end of a franchise. One of the issues strongly raised by Miss Gwyther was the need for the infrastructure to be in the hands of the National Assembly.
Amendment No. 38 adds the Assembly to the national authorities—currently just the Scottish Executive and the Secretary of State— which must
That comes from subsection (6). This is a proposal from a service operator to discontinue a service that the franchise does not require the operator to run and which, if it is decided to delete it, should not be allowed to run. Therefore this is to secure the provision of services.
Amendment No. 39 adds the Assembly to the definition of national authorities that must consider proposals coming from funding authorities, rather than service operators, to discontinue a service that may not be required under the franchise agreement.
Amendment No. 41 adds the Assembly to the national authorities that must consider proposals coming from service operators to discontinue excluded services, which are basically services other than ordinary passenger services. The wording emulates that which applies to Scotland.
Amendment No. 48 again adds the Assembly to the national authorities that must keep a station in operation if the Office of Rail Regulation turns down under subsection (7) a proposal from a funding authority to stop funding it.
Amendment No. 59 gives the Assembly power to make railway byelaws. Miss Gwyther specifically asked for this in her letter to the Committee. I ask the Minister to address these points, as I am sure he will. I felt it necessary to put them on the record because the last thing we want is for the National Assembly to feel that it has been entirely excluded from the process. I realise that the request came rather late to the Committee. Nevertheless, the request was plainly made well before today.
Amendment No. 50 adds the Assembly to the national authorities that must keep a "secured" station in operation if the ORR turns down under subsection (7) a proposal from a funding authority to cease funding it.
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Amendment No. 57 backs up the previous amendment in the same way and emulates what is happening in Scottish byelaws, defining which byelaws can be made.
My hon. Friends and I have tabled this bank of amendments. Although they were mainly drafted by Members of our party, the purport of them came from every political party in the National Assembly, as represented on the Committee chaired by Miss Gwyther. I ask the Minister to give serious consideration to each and every one of them. I am not prejudging the issue, but if the Minister is unable so to do, I hope that someone in the other place more generously disposed to the devolution process might deal with them. The matters are important. I am not simply making political points; I am trying to make the point that we need this to be done for the railways infrastructure in Wales to be properly controlled.
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