Member

The noble Lord, Lord Young, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Pidgeon and Lady Randerson, will note, I hope, that we are not closing off further devolution of the operation of services. If the Government decide to do so, there are existing mechanisms in legislation to enable this to happen. Section 24 of the Railways Act 1993 allows the Secretary of State and Scottish and Welsh Ministers to exempt certain services from the surrounding provisions of that Act, and this Bill does not change that. That is the basis on which services in Greater London and the Liverpool City Region can be operated by the relevant local authorities. Amendments to the Bill are not necessary to provide a statutory basis for further devolution to local leaders in our larger metropolitan areas, nor are they needed if those authorities wish to operate those services directly rather than contract them or have them as a concession.