The purpose of clause 8 is to extinguish most private rights of way over land held by the Secretary of State where that land is required for or in connection with the Crossrail project. That will ensure that the Crossrail works can be carried out safely and effectively. Such provision—I suspect that the hon. Gentleman knows what I am about to say—is well precedented in previous private Acts for railways and can be found in the Channel Tunnel Act 1987.

Some private rights of way are protected under the clause. For example, subsection (3) provides for certain rights of way to be excluded from being extinguished. Subsection (4), which amendment No. 9 would delete, further enables the Secretary of State to direct that particular private rights of way are not automatically extinguished under subsection (2) and, therefore, the hon. Gentleman’s amendment would take that right away from the Secretary of State and remove that additional protection. Therefore, I cannot ask the Committee to support it.