Traffic Management Bill
9:25 am
Mr Christopher Chope (Christchurch, Conservative)
Welcome to the chair, Miss Begg. This is the first time that I have had the privilege of serving under your chairmanship, and I very much look forward to the experience. I am delighted to say that Conservative Members are taking the Bill seriously, which is obvious from the fact that we have an extremely high-powered team, including my right hon. Friends the Members for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) and for East Yorkshire (Mr. Knight) and a powerful, speaking Whip, my hon. Friend the Member for Spelthorne (Mr. Wilshire).
In introducing the programme motion, the Minister almost made a Second Reading speech. We have no argument with the principle that we should try to reduce congestion on our highways, but we have concerns about much of the detail of the Bill. The Minister referred to events and discussions taking place elsewhere in the House today concerning funding for higher education. That is an argument involving about £1 billion of funding for universities. In part of this Bill, there is a proposal for the extension of lane rental, which would impose a burden of £1.2 billion on ordinary consumers of our utility services. That is a large figure in a significant part of the Bill that has not hitherto attracted sufficient public scrutiny or interest.
We do not accept the principle that a Bill such as this should be programmed from the outset. Therefore, we shall not support the motion. However, I always listen to what Ministers say and I have no reason to doubt the Minister's sincerity. If he is more interested in ensuring that the Bill is properly scrutinised than in forcing it through in a particular period, I am sure that we can make progress in a reasonable way without the pressure of a programme motion. That, indeed, is why I believe that it is regrettable to start with one. Years ago, we trusted people on the basis that if it turned out after a long time that a Bill was not being properly scrutinised and there were unnecessarily long speeches early in its scrutiny, the Government could take appropriate action. I hope that we can establish mutual trust from the start, but that is made difficult by the fact that there is a programme motion before us. Having
said that, I hope that the Bill will be properly scrutinised.
The Minister indicated that he hopes to be able to complete part 1 of the Bill today. I do not know whether that is a realistic aspiration. The Government do not seem to be fully prepared for the Bill, which is one reason why it took some time to come to Committee after Second Reading. I am grateful to the Minister for having made available a schedule of the secondary legislation that will flow from it, and I note that there will be five separate pieces from part 1 alone. Going by the priority accorded to them, many will be introduced by statutory instrument by early summer 2005. It would have been better if many of those provisions had been written on to the face of the Bill so that we could discuss them in Committee. Then, as part of the Bill, they would reach the statute book when it does without the need for subsidiary legislation. The Minister thinks that it should be easy to forecast how long a Bill will take in Committee, but forecasting is difficult when a Bill contains as many provisions as this one does for secondary legislation, the full details of which we are honour bound, as a conscientious Opposition, to tease out of the Government.
Sometimes, the Government are prepared; they know exactly what will be involved, they have drafts of the secondary legislation for the Committee to see, and regulations based on those drafts can be introduced as soon as the Bill receives Royal Assent. That does not seem to be the situation with this Bill. From the schedule produced by the Minister, it seems that quite a lot of the regulations and guidance will involve work that has not yet started or has only just started. That shows that the Government are being rather unreasonable in saying that time is of the essence and in forcing the Bill through in a specified time when we know that they, who have all the resources available, have not yet got down to the detailed work involved in much of the secondary legislation that the Bill will give them the power to introduce.
That is probably enough of an opening salvo. I hope that we will be able to discuss and consider the legislation in a constructive and good-humoured way in the great tradition of Parliament.