Lord Tunnicliffe: My Lords, in addressing your Lordships' House for the first time, I would like to express my gratitude for the warm and friendly welcome I have received from Members on all sides of the House. I would also like to thank the staff at every level. They are helpful, polite and friendly. They radiate enthusiasm for their work and the institution they serve. In my 30 years in customer-facing...
Lord Tunnicliffe: My Lords, does my noble friend agree that much of the concerns being expressed will be addressed by the Office of Rail Regulation as set out in its recent document entitled Implementing The Future of Rail: ORR's Role and Proposed Work Programme, particularly its commitment to review Network Rail's governance, the role and support for Network Rail members, the reward package for Network Rail...
Lord Tunnicliffe: moved Amendment No. 1: Page 1, line 6, after "registered" insert "for the purpose of pest control"
Lord Tunnicliffe: My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 3, 5 to 18, 21, 22, 27 and 30. I shall not move Amendment No. 4. My objective will be to create the Alun Michael Bill as it left Commons Standing Committee F in 2003, printed on 28 February 2003. I shall fail that test with respect to hare coursing and hunting, as I shall explain. As amended, the Bill would contain additional consensual clauses...
Lord Tunnicliffe: My Lords, my reason for making that comment is that it seems, from my mid-position, that the amendments would take us as close as possible to the position—on record—at which the House of Commons was, when it was working with consensus. I will test whether this House is willing to accept that position as a consensus. I beg to move.
Lord Tunnicliffe: My Lords, I shall be brief.
Lord Tunnicliffe: My Lords, it is good to have support. In the final analysis, one cannot affirm truths, but only what one believes to be true. I genuinely believe that the Bill, as amended by my amendments, is not a ban, but a restraint. It is an evidence-driven restraint; it is not an impossible test. I genuinely believe that it is the best compromise available. A conciliator runs the risk of being equally...
Lord Tunnicliffe: My Lords, I shall speak on one issue only—the future Army structure. I welcome the way in which the decision has come about and its outcome. I was provoked into this by listening to the repetition by the noble Lord, Lord Bach, of the Statement made by the Secretary of State on 16 December. The reaction to it varied from cool to outright hostility, whereas I saw a good process and a good...
Lord Tunnicliffe: My Lords, when I was a schoolboy, I was very bad at reading and writing. Frankly, I am not very good at them now. For me, the word processor and the spell check have been a salvation. However, I was good at sums. I did sums, pursued them and was introduced to the wonderful world of mathematics, which, if you have not been there, is almost impossible to describe: the magic of algebra, the...
Lord Tunnicliffe: My Lords, I support this Bill, but first I must declare an interest. I am employed in the railway industry as chairman of the Rail Safety and Standards Board, an organisation which facilitates agreements between parties on safety in the railway system. I also reflect from a position of 12 years with London Underground, which carried 1 billion passengers a year, and two years looking after the...
Lord Tunnicliffe: My Lords, I declare an interest as a former managing director and chairman of London Underground. I join the whole House in extending my sympathy to members of the public and the emergency services, but also ask that we think of the men and women in London Underground today and over the next days and weeks. They would have been present when the bombs went off and would have been expected to...
Lord Tunnicliffe: My Lords, I too thank the noble Lord, Lord Campbell, for introducing the debate. I rise with trepidation and contribute in awe of the noble and gallant Lords who have all spoken on a similar theme. I fear that my comments might be misinterpreted as lack of loyalty to the Armed Forces. I affirm my personal loyalty and commitment to and admiration of the work of the British Armed Forces, in the...
Lord Tunnicliffe: I rise briefly to support these amendments. I declare my interest as chairman of the Rail Safety and Standards Board. The board is a company owned by the railway industry in general, not any one part of it. We do two things that are important in this debate. First, we facilitate national initiatives on areas of safety concern. We facilitate a level crossing focus group to study this area, and...
Lord Tunnicliffe: My Lords, I rise to support this Bill. I want to speak briefly not of the logical issues, which have been well covered by many speakers, but the emotional ones. I find the logic of the benefits of the Bill in a society with proliferating fragile databases overwhelming. I believe that the costs will be managed and that problems with the technology will be overcome. The Government's recent...
Lord Tunnicliffe: My Lords, I support the amendments and urge the House not to undervalue its own powers of scrutiny of secondary legislation. There is a Select Committee of the House—the Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee, established 18 months ago. It now has significant influence. We examine every statutory instrument and bring a small number of them to the attention of the House. Departments are...
Lord Tunnicliffe: My Lords, as a member of the Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee of this House, I have slogged through every single order relating to the Civil Partnership Act and I assure noble Lords that they are all consequential and go no further than the Act or detract from it. I am delighted to support these orders, but I am even more delighted by the indication from the Minister that the torrent...
Lord Tunnicliffe: My Lords, I start by declaring an interest as a non-executive director of three SMEs. I generally support the Bill and I want to make two brief points. As a member of the Merits Committee of this House, it is brought home to me every Tuesday how incredibly inaccessible UK legislation is. It is made up of statutory instruments that amend statutory instruments that stand upon Acts that amend...
Lord Tunnicliffe: My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Lord, Lord Harrison, for initiating this debate. Before I start, I declare my interest as chairman of the Rail Safety and Standards Board. I will speak about the risk to the safety, not health, of workers and the public in general. I was urged to speak in this debate because of my experience with the subject. I was 25 years in aviation, including 10 as an...
Lord Tunnicliffe: My Lords, while I am sure that we all regret any delays that may be caused by these financial constraints, to put the matter in perspective, will my noble friend tell us how many operations were conducted last year compared with the number in the last full year of the Conservative government?
Lord Tunnicliffe: My Lords, I shall speak briefly against the amendment. The noble Baroness, Lady Park of Monmouth, was absolutely right to centre on the fact that this Bill is about a database. The constant appeals to our ancient past must be put into context, because technology has changed our world. Information technology is capable of manipulating databases. They exist; we are all part of them. I support...