Schedule 2
Crossrail Bill
9:15 am
Mark Field (Cities of London and Westminster, Conservative)
I agree with what my hon. Friend has said. Does the Minister not also understand that, in a sense, the Secretary of State’s power is imposed only when the parties disagree at the outset? The danger is that the Secretary of State will get involved in what could be a very difficult political debate between parties that disagree about arbitration. Given the amount of compulsory purchasing and the other elements in which either the Secretary of State is potentially a final arbiter or state bodies own part of the land concerned, it seems the worst of all worlds for the Secretary of State to take on that power. However, as my hon. Friend rightly points out, the parties should be obliged to go to arbitration whether or not they agree.