Clause 4
Channel Tunnel Rail Link (Supplementary Provisions) Bill
11:45 am
Tom Harris (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Glasgow South, Labour)
I rise with some scepticism as to whether I can persuade the hon. Gentleman of my argument, as I do not have much to add to what I said in our evidence session. However, I shall give it a try. I am grateful to him for outlining the intention behind the amendment. It is not our policy to subject this or any other business to regulation beyond what is necessary. With that in mind, we are clear that the regulatory costs borne by the owner of HS1 should be limited to what is absolutely necessary. That is why subsection (2) makes it clear that the costs should be reasonably incurred when passed on to the owner of HS1.
I understand the point made by the right hon. Member for East Yorkshire. The fees that ORR charges the owners of the infrastructure of HS1 could be challenged legally if they were seen to be unreasonable and not according to the spirit of the Bill as it stands at the moment.
I said earlier that regulation of HS1 would be lighter in some respects than regulation of Network Rail’s network. The ORR has a different set of duties for HS1 than it has for the rest of the network. As the regulators’ costs will reflect a different set of activities, it may not be possible for the fees to be calculated in the same way as Network Rail’s licence fee.