Baroness Morgan of Cotes (Non-Afl)

My Lords, it is a pleasure to take part in this group. Before I speak to Amendment 210 in my name, if we are in the business of talking about heritage railways, I should speak about the Great Central Railway in Loughborough and, as the founding chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Heritage Rail, support the amendment just spoken to by the noble Lord, Lord Parkinson. I also want to add my support, and have added my name, to Amendment 207 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Pidgeon. It is ironic that I am looking at the timing of this debate and wondering what late-night train I am going to have to get for an hour-and-a-half journey. The point of that amendment is both lighting and transport infrastructure that works. As the noble Baroness already said, there being a taxi when you arrive somewhere if you have not got a car is something very much on my mind. On Amendment 210, I am grateful for the support of my noble friend Lord Moylan, who has added his name. I am sorry that I could not speak at Second Reading. I thank the Minister for his engagement on this issue. I am sorry that he is not here at the moment, but I know that the noble Baroness will respond to the points that have been made on this group. This is an issue that he has written to me about and he has made clear his support. As we have already heard, I am sure, in Committee, millions of people rely on the rail network. It brings people together and allows them to get to work and participate in education or leisure activities. It contributes over £36 billion annually to the UK economy and provides around 600,000 jobs. There can be no question that our rail network is the backbone of an equal opportunity society. It is vital for independent social mobility, especially for women. But we also need to remember that millions of people rely on their public transport being safe, and there are still huge issues regarding safety on our trains, especially for women, BAME members of our society and disabled passengers, as we heard on the previous group. These have not been addressed. According to the ONS, 58% of women aged 16 to 34 years old reported feeling unsafe using public transport alone after dark, 34% have witnessed assault or harassment and 19% report themselves having been assaulted or harassed. Sexual offences specifically have risen by 10% and harassment is up by 6%. It is no surprise therefore that violence against women and girls is seen as a national emergency according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council. The solution is not that nearly two-thirds, 63% of women, avoid traveling alone. It is also not for them to have to undertake “normalised” behaviour, such as being very choosy about where they sit or assiduously avoiding eye-contact with anyone. Instead, more innovative solutions need to put in place to help assure their safety. In speaking to this amendment, unfortunately I cannot not point to the recent horrific case of Simon Levy, a man who murdered two people and raped another while on bail for two years. He had previous convictions for 13 sexual offences against women, including 10 assaults on London’s transport network between October 2023 and May 2025. Sadly, it is no surprise that he was allowed to be free when only 3% of cases of violence against women and girls on the railways resulted in a charge or summons. I understand that the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Hendy, has written to British Transport Police about their track record on issues relating to violence against women and girls. I ask him, through the noble Baroness, whether he will publish that correspondence for the benefit of noble Lords, as he and I have discussed. It is true that Network Rail states at the very top of its website that the safety of its passengers is paramount. We know that Network Rail, the train operating companies, Transport for London and the British Transport Police support White Ribbon UK’s campaign. The Government have stated that nationalisation is an opportunity to improve safety. The trouble is that safety on the railways is often not seen in the context of violence against women and girls specifically. There is little guidance about how this nationalisation, which provides an opportunity to improve safety, is going to happen in a practical sense, so I hope that Amendment 210 offers a path forward. I think it fits in well with what the Government are trying to achieve in this Bill. With nationalisation, the Government have the perfect opportunity to reset the standard. Following Royal Assent to the Railway Passenger Services (Public Ownership) Bill 2024, the department instructed DfT operators to assume responsibility for train operators’ ownership in England and to provide “safe, secure and sustainable” transport. It later clarified in response to a Question asked by me in the House recently that the department “will have increasing control over the design of trains and, in particular, standards of lighting and closed-circuit television”, as “designing out opportunities for such violence to happen is a real priority””.—[Official Report, 24/2/25; col. 1456.] I note that the recent rolling stock and infrastructure strategy for GB Railways very briefly—I found one reference to it—mentions violence against women and girls and related rolling-stock design. Amendment 210 would therefore mandate GB Railways to record data around violence against women and girls on trains, to be responsible for safety and security, to consult the industry regarding innovation and technology that could help reduce violence against women and girls, and to develop guidelines for rolling stock operators that would lay out a gold-standard technology, which should be implemented to improve safety issues and standards on trains. By embedding all considerations into planning and transport guidance, it would ensure that the safety of over 50% of the population, at least, is built into the fabric of our public rail network. It would also ensure that the Government could have true oversight of this issue and engage with those organisations specialised in developing the technology and innovation needed to help drive confidence in passengers, particularly women. They would ensure that manufacturers are subject to a gold standard.