Member

Although we expect that this power will rarely be used, it is necessary in instances of serious operational failure or unforeseen crisis, where it would be responsible for the democratically elected Secretary of State to take action in the form of a direction. For example, the Oil and Gas Authority has received only one ministerial direction in its 10-year history. I do not recall receiving any in the nine years that I chaired Network Rail—and I would also reflect on the fact that the last Government’s reform Bill, which was published for parliamentary scrutiny, had exactly the same power in it, expressed in exactly the same words.