APPENDIX 6: CROSSRAIL BILL — GOVERNMENT
RESPONSE
Letter to the Chairman from Lord Bassam of Brighton,
Government spokesman for the Department for Transport in the House
of Lords
1. I refer to the Delegated Powers and Regulatory
Reform Committee's 11th Report of Session 2007-08.
2. There is one comment concerning Government
amendments to the Crossrail Bill moved in Grand Committee that
is contained in paragraph 13 of the report. This relates to a
new clause, 'Objective of ORR in relation to Crossrail', which
is now clause 22 of the Bill as amended in Grand Committee on
26 June 2008.
3. Clause 22 has the effect of including in the
objectives of the Office of Rail Regulation the objective of facilitating
the construction of Crossrail. The DPRR Committee's comment was
in relation to subsection (3), which enables the Secretary of
State by order to specify that clause 22 shall cease to have effect.
The comment was that "the House might welcome an undertaking
from the Minister that the Secretary of State will not exercise
the power until the Crossrail construction phase has been completed."
However, the Committee are expressly not seeking amendment to
the clause.
4. Apart from any concern as to the fettering
of the Secretary of State's discretion, an undertaking in the
terms suggested by the Committee would likely suffer considerable
ambiguity concerning precisely when the construction phase of
the Crossrail project could be regarded as having been "completed"
- as works on the national railway network may be completed before,
for example, the central tunnel section works.
5. Further, there is no need for such an undertaking
because the clear policy intention behind clause 22 is that the
ORR should have the objective of facilitating the construction
of Crossrail for so long as it is anticipated that decisions may
be required from the ORR that materially affect Crossrail construction.
Given that policy, we cannot foresee any circumstances in which
we would wish to remove this objective before Crossrail construction
had been substantially completed.
6. I am placing this letter in the Libraries
to assure the House of the Secretary of State's intentions.
Department for Transport
July 2008
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