It had a speedy passage with all-party support. It falls to me to shepherd the Bill through your Lordships' House. I am delighted to do so. All my life I have been a steam train buff. North Norfolk Railway and a former director and now vice-president of the Bluebell Railway, which was the first steam railway in this country to be preserved.
Steam trains are part of our national heritage.
It would be a sad thing if many of the items connected with them were to disappear. The sole intention of the Bill is to fill a vacuum and to ensure that the same restrictions apply to privatised railways, so far as concerns records and artefacts, as apply to the British Railways Board and its subsidiaries. It replaces Section 125 of the Railways Act 1993, which applies only to public bodies. The Bill will help preserve our heritage for posterity. The heritage links those things back to the present.