Member

Turning to Lords amendment 1, throughout my party’s scrutiny of this Bill, we have been asking one simple question: will it improve passenger outcomes? As the Secretary of State has often argued, that is what nationalisation is meant to do, and it is why she rightly describes herself as passenger-in-chief. The amendment is consequently important. It makes it clear that the primary purpose—but not the only purpose—of the Bill is to improve passenger railway services, and it requires the Secretary of State to have regard to that purpose when making any decision using the powers under the Act, so I do not understand why the passenger-in-chief does not want this commitment enshrined in the legislation.