I have no doubt that the amendment is well intentioned, but I spent the best part of two years serving on the hybrid Bill Committee and, as the hon. Member for Northampton, South reminded us, that Committee spent a considerable time looking at issues of compensation and how land and property owners would be affected by Crossrail during construction and once it was operational.

We looked in considerable detail at those whose land and property might be taken for the Crossrail project, those who might be affected by the railway passing under their property and the extent to which the existing law and regulations would provide them with adequate compensation. In broad terms, we concluded that the compensation code, about which most of us knew very little when we embarked on the process, was widely based and appropriate for the overwhelming majority of situations that would emerge during construction. There were one or two particular examples  to consider, such as the Smithfield market traders, who might not have got adequate compensation under the code due to a rather peculiar and long-standing arrangement for their leases, but that was very much the exception.

While I am sympathetic to ensuring that people get compensation, I can say that those Members who served on the hybrid Bill Committee were in general reassured that the ways in which the code would operate would be adequate for the overwhelming majority of circumstances. Therefore, the amendment is unnecessary. I hope that the Minister can reassure us that the clause is sufficient to ensure that the compensation code will apply in the circumstances that have been envisaged here and be more than adequate, as we concluded it will be, in other circumstances.