Schedule 12
Crossrail Bill
12:00 pm
Tom Harris (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Glasgow South, Labour)
Schedule 12 sets out the Secretary of State’s powers to make schemes for the transfer of property rights and liabilities—known as transfer schemes—from himself or certain other bodies to any person, including the Secretary of State. If approved, the amendments would remove the Secretary of State’s right to make a scheme for the transfer of property rights and liabilities from himself to any person, including the Secretary of State, and instead limit his powers of transfer to
“either the Secretary of State or the nominated undertaker”.
If approved, the amendments would remove the Secretary of State’s right to make a scheme for the purposes connected with Crossrail for the transfer of property rights and liabilities from the Greater London authority, TfL, the London Development Agency and their subsidiaries to any person, including the Secretary of State, and instead constrain the Secretary of State’s powers of transfer to
“either the Secretary of State or the nominated undertaker”.
Finally, amendment No. 55 would, if approved, remove the Secretary of State’s right to make a scheme for the purposes connected with Crossrail for the transfer of property rights and liabilities from the Secretary of State or a company wholly owned by him to any person, and instead limit the Secretary of State’s powers of transfer to the nominated undertaker.
Taking the amendments collectively, the hon. Gentleman’s overall intention appears to be to restrict the Secretary of State’s powers to transfer property rights and liabilities from himself to any person, which would not make much sense at this stage of the project. The project is at a stage where the final ownership structure has not yet been decided, so it is too early to say with absolute certainty who all the players might be. It must therefore make sense to allow flexibility in the making of transfer schemes to cater for all eventualities, so I hope that the hon. Gentleman will consider withdrawing the amendment.