Clause 51 - Performance directions
Railways and Transport Safety Bill
10:00 am
Mrs Anne McIntosh (Vale of York, Conservative)
This clause takes us back to our earlier discussion on best value authorities. The Secretary of State is given a discretionary power to
''give a direction to the Authority containing provision of a kind which he could make in respect of a best value authority''.
I wonder whether the Minister could clarify ''best value authority''.
I understand that in the responses to the consultation, which took place some time before the Bill was published to allow the Government to digest and translate the responses into the Bill, the Association of Police Authorities and the Hampshire police authority considered that the British Transport police authority should be statutorily designated as a best value authority and endure the full rigours of a compliance inspection and order.
The Association of Chief Police Officers also asked that consideration be given to that point. It considered best value to be an extremely powerful performance management tool, but that requiring the British Transport police authority to adopt best value principles would not be effective. Rather than allow the British Transport police authority to act as a best value authority, are the Government minded to make it incumbent on the Secretary of State to give it direction in that regard?
The Hampshire police authority also suggested that the arrangements for the British Transport police authority should take into account the outcome of the Home Office and the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions review of the best value regime. If the Government have taken it into account, will the Minister explain how that translates into clause 51, because it is not obvious?
I gather that an opposite view was put by those who considered that the British Transport police authority should be modelled on another authority but should
have no such obligation in respect of best value. I wonder whether, because of the two contrasting views in the responses, the Government feel that the matter is not as clear as it should be, and that is why clause 51 gives the Secretary of State the discretionary power to direct. Again, I did not hear the Minister say how that direction would be published. Will he be good enough to tell the Committee today how it is intended that the Secretary of State shall publish a discretionary direction under subsection (2)? Will he also say today whether the House would have an opportunity to debate that? What vehicle would be used? Would it be a statutory instrument Committee, a Select Committee, or would the matter be debated on the Floor of the House?
It is interesting that the Secretary of State is asked to consult not only the authority, but
''any other person that he thinks appropriate.''
That drafting seems extremely wide. I wonder whom the Government have it in mind that the Secretary of State might consult. Would it be a passenger transport executive or Network Rail?
Again, conflicting views were expressed at the time of the consultation. How have the Government sought to resolve in the clause the conflict in the responses to the consultation paper? In what circumstances does the Minister envisage that the discretion granted to the Secretary of State might be used? Can he give examples of the circumstances in which the Government imagine that it might be used for the purposes of the British Transport police? Corresponding examples of where that provision has been used by the Home Secretary for the local police authorities would also be welcome. To satisfy my curiosity, let me probe the Minister a little further. Who might the other person or people be whom the Secretary of State thought it appropriate to consult?