High Speed Rail (Crewe - Manchester) Bill: Committal — House of Commons, 2022-06-20
Topic: Transportation
Andrew George Stephenson (Conservative, Centre-right): I think we would all agree that we have to get high-speed rail right. Without the Golborne link, this is still a £13 billion to £19 billion scheme; including the Golborne link, it a £15 billion to £22 billion scheme. We have to get it right: we have to ensure that we are delivering the maximum reductions in journey times to Scotland, that we have the least environmental damage possible and that we are building this infrastructure —the infrastructure that the House has just supported on Second Reading—in the right way. That is why I believe we are right to bring forward the motion to remove consideration of the Golborne link from the Bill while we look at alternatives I would like to tidy up some misunderstanding, as this has been mentioned by a couple of hon. Members, about the decision to remove the Golborne link on Monday 6 June—a day when there was also a confidence vote in this House. I think anybody who is aware of parliamentary procedure—I know all the Opposition Members here are very well aware of parliamentary procedure—will know that for me to table a written ministerial statement on the Monday, I had to inform the House I was doing so the week before. I notified the House authorities and also tabled the title of my written ministerial statement, which was well before any confidence vote was anticipated The hon. Member for Blackley and Broughton (Graham Stringer) said that his only other explanation for what this could possibly be about was cuts. With the £96 billion of rail investment in the midlands and the north in the integrated rail plan, this is the biggest ever Government investment in our railways, and it cannot be described—seriously, it cannot—as a cut. I look forward to continuing to work with the hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North (Gavin Newlands) to reduce journey times to Scotland I think we all have an interest in getting this infrastructure right, and I therefore ask the hon. Member for Makerfield not to push her amendments to a vote Question put and agreed to. High Speed Rail (Crewe - Manchester) Bill: Instruction Ordered, That it be an instruction to the Select Committee to which the High Speed Rail (Crewe - Manchester) Bill is committed to deal with the Bill as follows— (1) The Committee shall— (a) make an appropriate assessment, in accordance with the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 ("the 2017 Regulations"), of the implications for a site within paragraph (2) of the provisions made in relation to the site by the Bill in view of the site’s conservation objectives, and (b) make a recommendation to the House in relation to whether those provisions adversely affect the integrity of the site (2) The following sites are within this paragraph— (a) the Rochdale Canal special area of conservation, and (b) a site to which paragraph (3) applies that the Committee determines, in accordance with the 2017 Regulations, is likely to be significantly affected by a provision of the Bill (3) This paragraph applies to a European site (within the meaning of the 2017 Regulations) in relation to which— (a) an amendment has been proposed by the member in charge of the Bill which, if the Bill were a private bill, could not be made except upon petition for additional provision, or (b) the Committee has been provided with additional information by the promoters after the date of this instruction (4) For the purposes of making an assessment under paragraph (1) or a determination under paragraph (2)(b), the Committee may require the promoters to provide the Committee with such information as the Committee may reasonably require (5) For the purposes of making an assessment under paragraph (1), the Committee— (a) must consult the relevant nature conservation body and have regard to any representations made by the body within such reasonable time as the Committee specifies; (b) is not required to consult the general public (6) In paragraph (5)(a), the "relevant nature conservation body" means— (a) in relation to a site in England, Natural England, and (b) in relation to a site in Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage That these Orders be Standing Orders of the House.—(Andrew Stephenson.)