The House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee (DPRRC) has published a report on the Railways Bill.
In it, the committee flags concerns about three clauses, suggesting they are “either too broadly drawn, have insufficient parliamentary oversight or represent inappropriate ‘Henry VIII’ powers.”
The Committee said that Clause 71 in the Railways Bill, which gives the Government the power to make changes to access arrangements for private rail firms to access the rail network with the creation of Great British Railways (GBR), “confers a unilateral right to amend contracts to which the Government is a party”.
While the Government has said in an associated memorandum that it will use the power in a limited way and only when necessary, the Committee stated that the “assurances would not be necessary if the delegated power was more constrained” and that the its judges proposed delegated powers on how the Government, or a future government, “could use them, not how it says it will.”
The Committee added that the House of Lords should consider amending the powers in Clause 71 so it could be used “only for the purposes for which the Government said it is intended” and that when these powers are used they should be “subject to a higher degree of parliamentary oversight than currently proposed.”
In addition, the Committee considered Clauses 72 and 73, which also deal with access to infrastructure. It said they are Henry VIII powers – allowing Ministers to amend, repeal or otherwise modify the effect of an existing Act of Parliament. The report says the Government has not justified why these powers are necessary which, in the case of Clause 72, would allow the Government to amend future – as yet unknown – legislation without proper parliamentary scrutiny.
The Committee said the House of Lords should consider removing clause 73 from the Bill and amending Clause 72 so that it cannot be used to amend Acts passed in future sessions of Parliament.
The Railways Bill establishes GBR, the new publicly owned body that will act as a “guiding mind” for Britain’s rail network.
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