Clause 62
Crossrail Bill
5:15 pm
Stephen Hammond (Shadow Minister, Transport; Wimbledon, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 74, in clause 62, page 37, line 39, leave out subsection (5).
The clause is important because it deals with the process of arbitration and, in essence, it is a strong clause although hon. Members will have detected from my remarks throughout the Committee that I would like it to apply more widely.
The amendment would omit subsection (5) as I fail to see what it would add. It allows the Secretaries of State for Transport and for Communities and Local Government to combine to issue rules about the procedures that govern the process of arbitration.
The system for appointing an arbitrator is already set out clearly in the clause and I would have thought that the detailed rules of engagement should thereafter should be left to the arbitrator. If the Government intervene, it could be problematic; one of the parties to the dispute, namely the nominated undertaker, is an appointee of the Secretary of State and the others could be the Secretaries of State. How would the other party react if they knew that the adversary was writing the rule book?
I invite the Minister to clarify exactly why he thinks the Secretaries of State need the powers that I believe could, yet again, jeopardise the independence of the arbitration process, which other than that seems to be robust and appropriate.