The House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform
Committee (DPRRC) has published a report on the Railways Bill,
flagging concerns with three clauses contained in the Bill as
either too broadly drawn, having insufficient parliamentary
oversight or representing inappropriate Henry VIII' powers.
The Committee say 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 have said in an associated memorandum that
it will use the power in a limited way and only when necessary,
the Committee say that the assurances would not be necessary
if the delegated power was more constrained and that the
Committee judges proposed delegated powers on how the government,
or a future government, could use them, not how it says it will.
The Committee says the House of Lords should consider amending
the powers in Clause 71 so it can only be used for the purposes
for which the Government say it is intended and that when they
are used they should be subject to a higher degree of
parliamentary oversight than currently proposed
The Committee also consider Clauses 72 and 73 which also deal
with access to infrastructure and says 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 says 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.
