Renewable Transport Fuel Obligations (Amendment) Order 2011

Lord Bradshaw Excerpts

Monday 5th December 2011 Grand Committee

Nevertheless, we and the rest of the European Union stand quixotically alone, insanely trying and thankfully failing to lead the world in the practice of economic suicide. Eventually this policy will collapse around our heads—and the sooner the better.

[Lord Bradshaw]

I will concentrate my remarks on the used cooking oil industry, which gets a rather raw deal from the Government under these proposals. We have to remember that the business is sustainable, which even my noble friend Lord Reay would admit. Basically, it uses waste products from the cooking industry to make biodiesel. It is a new business—it only really began in about 2007—so is not an industry with any great roots. It is made up mostly of SMEs—small and medium-sized enterprises—and is not dominated by big corporations. There is a real threat that the growth of the industry will be not only stopped but reversed by the passage of this legislation.

Used cooking oil is actually very green compared with fossil fuels—and with many grown crops, particularly if we are not certain of their source. One of the biggest problems in judging whether a crop has been grown in a sustainable way is that the certificates of origin provided by many suppliers are highly suspect. I ask noble Lords to reflect on the last time they bought a piece of teak garden furniture with a label on it saying, “Sourced from sustainable forests”. I would say, “How do you know what went on in Indonesia?”—and I am sure that the suppliers do not, either.

We are talking about recycling a waste product, and the industry works on very tight margins. It is not an industry that has any room for manoeuvre. The Minister replied to a Written Question of mine about the price of a road transport fuel obligation certificate. I believe that the prices he quoted in his Answer were from a few big dealers, whereas most of the trading takes place between small industries, which we do not know anything about. However, the figures that he quoted, which indicated a doubling of the price of certificates, should be contrasted with the fact that on some occasions the certificates are worth nothing. Twice nothing is nothing, so doubling the price has not had a great effect.

This is a retrograde piece of legislation in respect of the treatment of the used cooking oil industry. I say to my noble friend that we are going to risk more unemployment and less expansion of the industry, which has the capability of expanding because there is still plenty of used cooking oil to collect and refine. I have one last question for him and I would be very interested to hear his answer. In view of the withdrawal of the tax differential and the uncertainty over the value of the tradable certificates, would he put his own money into this industry?

[Lord Grantchester]

I recognise the importance of this order for transport and meeting our climate change obligations. Its sustainability provisions are entirely to be welcomed. However, the lengthening of the timescale from 2011 to 2014 is a further example of the Government dissipating the momentum of the last Labour Government. This is impacting further on the confidence of the investor market, as has been identified across the renewable industry in its relationship with this Government.

I have one specific query. I understand that elements of the sustainability criteria are currently being consulted on. The consultation is set to end on 15 December, the date the order becomes operable. I understand that the UK Petroleum Industry Association has lobbied on the penalty of 30p a litre for non-compliance, stating that there is not sufficient time for its supply chains to meet the standards. The association asks that any fines should not apply before 1 April 2012, to allow supply chain purchases and contracts to catch up with the certification process for the biofuel products. The UKPIA states that it does not know whether biofuel products already contracted will meet the certification process and standards. This seems an understandable request. Can the Minister clarify his department’s position?

--- Later in debate ---

The noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, asked why we have removed the duty incentive in respect of cooking oil. A duty incentive offers no mechanism for addressing concerns about the sustainability and sourcing of the biofuel supplier. Because it rewards both sustainable and unsustainable biofuels equally, it does not give sufficient long-term certainty for potential investors in biofuel production or an infrastructure that helps support a market for more sustainable biofuels. That is why the Government have committed to remove the duty differentials on biofuels.

[Lord Bradshaw]

I believed that the 20p incentive was paid to the people who refine used cooking oil. Now the noble Earl is saying it is available to a wider group of people. It has probably got through to him that the Committee is not overjoyed about this piece of legislation. Will he go back, check this and consider whether producers should be guaranteed to get at least 20 pence? If they get more, that can be offset, but they want a guaranteed floor price.

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I will write in detail to the noble Lord on the issue of used cooking oil and see if I can draft a letter that will meet his concerns. At the moment I am convinced that this is a sensible policy.

Transport: London and the Regions

Lord Bradshaw Excerpts

Tuesday 15th November 2011 Grand Committee

[Lord Bradshaw]

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Empey, for introducing this subject. I worked in Northern Ireland for seven years and was an extremely frequent user of the services that were then provided by both BA and British Midland. Of course, BA has abandoned the route and the service has moved to Belfast City airport, but it is still a reasonable service, but, as the noble Lord, Lord Empey, said, it is difficult to envisage people seeking to do business in Northern Ireland unless there is a good quality, guaranteed service from London. Despite what the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, said, Northern Ireland is particularly isolated because there are no alternatives. You can take the sleeper train to Cornwall or a train to Edinburgh or Glasgow. It may take longer than you wish, but the train takes you into the centre of the city. Also, for most places it is possible to get there and back in a day, provided that you are willing to get up early. When I went to Northern Ireland, I would get on a plane from London airport at 8.15 or 8.30 am, and I could be back in the evening having had a useful day over there.

In response to the Question asked in the Chamber earlier today, the noble Earl referred to the passenger service obligation and said that there was no such obligation so far as air transport is concerned. I take issue with him on that statement because passenger service obligations exist over a wide range of transport needs. The noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, will back me up when I say that on the German railway, there are periods when you cannot run trains through particular parts of the country because of the passenger service obligation imposed by the Länder Governments to stop such trains interfering with the commuter services around the big hubs.

There are passenger service obligations in the form of what are known as public service requirements which are imposed on most railway franchises. Franchisees are not free to cast a service aside. They have to maintain a minimum number of stops and a minimum speed of service. If you look at the services from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness and Aberdeen to the Scottish islands, I think you will find that they are all supported by way of a PSO grant of some sort. So I would ask the noble Earl to go back to his department and say that the answer he was given this afternoon is not the whole story and needs thorough investigation.

In fact, as the noble Lord, Lord Empey, has said, the reason that IAG has put forward a proposition to purchase the slot and the airline, BMI, and the reason that Virgin Atlantic has shown interest is because of the international value of those flights. We have to ask ourselves, as a country, whether we set more store by people going to visit places such as Euro Disney and Florida than we do by the economic health of our own country. We are very good at talking down our own needs, allowing the market to dangle attractive propositions for us, and losing sight of what we are for. The United Kingdom as it stands is the whole of the United Kingdom, and Northern Ireland is part thereof.

I ask the Minister to go away, think carefully about what he has said today and seek further guidance because, on reflection, he will find he is wrong.

--- Later in debate ---

[Earl Attlee]

I am grateful to the noble Lord for that elucidation. The noble Lord asked whether the minimum service levels will be based on the current First Great Western timetable. The proposed approach to the specification of the services for the next Great Western franchise has yet to be developed and would anyway form part of the public consultation.

Many noble Lords have talked about the problem of slot allocation at Heathrow and public service obligations. Perhaps it would be helpful to the Committee if I carefully reiterated the positions. It would be open to the Northern Ireland Assembly to apply to the Secretary of State for Transport to impose a public service obligation on an air route from Northern Ireland to London, should it feel that a case can be made which satisfies the EU regulation on PSOs. If approved, this would permit slots to be ring-fenced at a London airport. As I said at Question Time, there is no other mechanism for the Government to intervene in the allocation of slots at Heathrow or other London airports.

It is important to note that EU regulations state that the PSO must be between two cities or regions and not between individual airports. Therefore, any PSO would have to take into account services to all five London airports. Other European states have exactly the same problems. You may have a region in France that is slightly deprived, and it might want to fly direct to Charles de Gaulle, but it cannot. It might, perhaps, have to fly to Orly and not have the benefit of going to a hub airport. We do not necessarily have a unique problem.

The noble Lord, Lord Empey, suggested that we cannot leave this issue to the commercial market. It is important to note that any PSO on a service to Heathrow could be subject to legal challenge from other airlines. The noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, talked about the requirements in franchise rail operations, but he needs to remember that airline operations are commercial operations, not franchise operations.

[Lord Bradshaw]

Will the Minister pause there to think of what happens with the services to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland? They are not commercial. They are supported by a PSO agreement.

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I was just coming on to that point. The noble Lord pointed out that PSOs already exist on air services to Scottish islands from Aberdeen and Inverness. He is correct. They are supported by the Scottish Government as lifeline services that otherwise would not be economic to operate.

[Lord Bradshaw]

They are lifeline services, but is Northern Ireland’s remaining air service to Heathrow not in the same category because, if it disappears, the region will be in real trouble? This is not a trivial point. You have got to concern yourself with regional development. Next year, Londonderry will be the European city of culture. Perhaps the air service will disappear at the same time.

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I understand what the noble Lord is saying, but BMI has not been sold, and no services have been stopped yet. I think he is going ahead of himself slightly.

The noble Baroness, Lady Scott, asked about the Greater Anglia (Short) franchise and customer satisfaction. Although this is a relatively short franchise, she will recognise that Abellio has offered commitments that will improve customer experience. She also asked several other very detailed questions, and I fear that I will have to write to her on those points.

Abellio plans to continue to run all those services that are crowded today or are likely to become crowded in the next five years in the formation planned by NXEA. In almost all cases where crowding occurs today, the trains concerned are being operated at the maximum formation allowed by the infrastructure, so it is an infrastructure limitation, not a rolling stock limitation.

Finally, the noble Lord, Lord Empey, touched on the Thames estuary airport. We welcome the input from the mayor and Lord Foster, and their suggestions will be considered alongside the many other contributions about our future aviation policy. However, such a project would be hugely complex. Detailed consideration would be needed on a range of issues, including airspace capacity, safety and access to the airport as well as costs and funding.

Biodiesel

Lord Bradshaw Excerpts

Tuesday 18th October 2011 Lords Chamber

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, Treasury Ministers confirmed at the 2011 Budget that the duty differential for biodiesel produced from used cooking oil will end on 31 March 2012, as was always intended. It is appropriate that support for waste-derived biofuels in transport will be provided through double rewards as part of the renewable transport fuels obligation. That, of course, has a sharper sustainability focus. By providing two renewable transport certificates per litre of waste-derived fuel, the UK is moving away from the guaranteed return of 20p provided by the duty differential for biodiesel produced from used cooking oil and moving towards an environment where the competitive market decides the price that will be awarded for each renewable transport fuel certificate. But each RTFC will still be worth around 20p.

[Lord Bradshaw]

Will the noble Earl turn his mind to the fact that the renewable transport fuel certificates, to which he has referred, are tradable assets? They have been often been of no value at all. Anyone investing money in this young industry of processing used cooking oil and other waste products face the possibility that they are being asked to invest money with no guarantee of a return whatever.

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, my noble friend is absolutely right. RTFCs were traded at a nil value but that was because of an error in the drafting of the original RTFO by the previous Government. That problem has been rectified and will not recur.

Railways: Brighton to London Line

Lord Bradshaw Excerpts

Thursday 6th October 2011 Lords Chamber

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, the noble Lord raised two points, the first of which is the road. One of the benefits of the proposed scheme is that it allows for the building of a bridge at a later stage should that be necessary. In fact, the scheme makes it easier to open the line, should that be necessary, because to the west of the proposed road crossing is a level crossing, which would be unacceptable if you wanted to open the railway.

The noble Lord asked about the BRPB and whether we would give it directions. No, we will not. It is not necessary. We are absolutely confident that nothing has been done that will compromise the ability to open the railway at some point in the future, should it be desirable to do so.

[Lord Bradshaw]

Will the Minister widen his consideration just beyond this line. There are a number of noble Lords who have in their areas of interest railway lines that could be reopened with advantage in the future. Surely the land concerned should be vested in Network Rail, which in July last year pronounced the Uckfield to Lewes line of strategic importance. There are many other such lines, of which one example is Oxford to Cambridge. This has been made almost impossible to open between Bedford and Cambridge because of building.

Rugby Union: Twickenham Railway Station

Lord Bradshaw Excerpts

Wednesday 18th May 2011 Lords Chamber

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I am not completely sure that that is a matter for my department. However, I also understand that, ironically, although rugby union is a contact sport, it actually experiences less bad behaviour than football matches.

[Lord Bradshaw]

My Lords, today is the 776th day since Governments on either side have ordered any new rolling stock for our railways. In circumstances where noble Lords in this Chamber will have found it extraordinarily difficult to get on to trains, and many people are crowded out, how are we going to show the world that we have a railway that is worth using unless some new rolling stock is ordered very urgently?

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, my noble friend has made some good points and we are working on them.

Wreck Removal Convention Bill

Lord Bradshaw Excerpts

Friday 13th May 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bradshaw]

My Lords, I shall turn to one aspect of this Bill, which I generally support: that of insurance and its efficacy in other transport modes as well as those on the sea. It is all very well saying that the costs will be borne by the insurers but how certain are we that those people have valid insurance certificates in force? Perhaps the Minister will tell us something about the port inspection procedures which verify whether a person has insurance and whether that insurance is adequate to cover the potential risks involved if the ship becomes a wreck. Of course, there is also the issue of ships which are not signatories to the convention, and which are passing through waters within our economic area but not calling at a harbour within the United Kingdom where such certificates can be inspected.

I said that I would touch on other modes. Rail companies are bound to have insurance—I believe a certificate of £155 million which is enforceable. However, we all know from recent questions in the other place that the car insurance industry is in a bit of mess. Although the police are able to detect cars without insurance and do that very easily with their camera equipment, there are a large proportion of motorists using the roads in this country who are not adequately insured—or insured at all.

My main point in contributing to this debate is to say that I support the Bill. It is not right that the Government shift their responsibilities to harbour authorities and the general lighthouse authorities, which have a limited sum of money available to deal with wrecks. They have a duty to mark them and so forth, but the recovery of a significant wreck will cost a lot of money. Knowing the insurance industry as I do, I can say that it will not be in any great hurry to come forward to meet its liabilities. There will therefore probably be a period of time between a wreck being located and marked and a Government issuing a direction to remove it, and any money being forthcoming to the harbour or lighthouse authority to which orders are given.

Despite the frequent representations of the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, the lighthouse authorities do not have a bottomless pit of money into which they can dip. I hope that the Minister will say that, until the insurance claim is settled, the Government—the Treasury—will stand behind the authority which is removing the wreck and will pay the immediate bills that arise. Wrecks often have to be removed quickly. I look forward to further debates in Committee, but the House deserves some real reassurances from the Minister.

Transport: Penzance and Isles of Scilly Ferry Service

Lord Bradshaw Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd March 2011 Lords Chamber

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, we understand that a decision is sought by the end of March. While I can make no guarantees, we appreciate the timing constraints and are doing all that we can to avoid a further delay. The noble Lord talked about the population of the Isles of Scilly. There are about 2,000 people, and the investment will represent £28,500 per resident. The noble Lord’s points about the sea-keeping quality of the ships are well made.

[Lord Bradshaw]

Will the Minister consider two points? First, does he imagine that the Government in Scotland would consider cutting off the Scottish islands, many of which have smaller populations but are served by regular ships? Secondly, has he considered the employment implications both in the Scilly Isles and in Penzance that will arise from any failure to bring this matter to a conclusion?

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, as I said in my initial Answer, we are committed to continuing the shipping link. One of the reasons for doing so is those employment opportunities on the Isles of Scilly that rely on that link.

Railways: Light Rail Vehicles

Lord Bradshaw Excerpts

Thursday 3rd March 2011 Lords Chamber

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, the noble Lord mentioned the Parry People Mover vehicle. We will encourage such developments. My officials in the department work closely with Mr Parry and they are working hard to resolve some of the technical difficulties.

[Lord Bradshaw]

My Lords, it took two to three years for the department to approve one vehicle which, as the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, said, has proved very satisfactory in service. Will the noble Earl ensure that, in the future, his department and the safety authorities get a move on and get something done?

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, my noble friend has rightly raised an issue about the time taken for approval. However, I have to say that Mr Parry is a bit of a pioneer. The vehicle comprises some very new and pioneering technology so there are a lot of issues to be resolved.

Roads: Charging

Lord Bradshaw Excerpts

Tuesday 1st February 2011 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Bradshaw]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to introduce road pricing for lorries in the United Kingdom.

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, we plan to introduce heavy goods vehicle road user charging to ensure a fairer arrangement for UK hauliers. We are still finalising details of the proposed scheme, which will include off-setting measures to help UK hauliers. The scheme must operate within relevant EU legislation and apply to both UK and foreign hauliers. Primary legislation will be required.

[Lord Bradshaw]

I thank the noble Earl for that reply, but why are Her Majesty's Government introducing a paper-based system for charging for road use, which will be both expensive to operate and open to abuse, when all the other countries in Europe have adopted or are adopting electronic systems, which have the scope to be adapted to deal with congestion and environmental damage?

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for his question. First, we have not fixed which scheme we are going to adopt, but it is unlikely that we will rely purely on a paper vignette. EU states have indeed moved from paper to electronic vignettes. Various possibilities are still being considered by the Government, but it is most likely that HGVs will be monitored for compliance by the use of automatic number plate reading linked to a database.

Railways: Heritage Sector

Lord Bradshaw Excerpts

Tuesday 1st February 2011 Grand Committee

[Lord Bradshaw]

My Lords, although I spent most of my working life on the railway, I did not collect engine numbers and I have no anorak to show for it. However, I believe that the economic arguments that the noble Lord has put forward are very sound.

I have been on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway to Whitby this year and on the Bluebell Line. Anyone visiting railways such as these will immediately pick up the tremendous enthusiasm of people who visit the sites. It is difficult to imagine a more attractive site to visit than the development of a model railway. We hope that some of these railways—the noble Lord mentioned the railway to Swanage—will shortly be connected to the main line, as is the Bluebell Railway. Then there will be the question of interworking with the main line, which many of us are sure will happen.

In the discussions that we are to have on the Railway Heritage Trust, it is important to ensure, first, that the artefacts that have been preserved so conscientiously in the past are transferred—if they have to be transferred—to a body that will take the matter very seriously. Secondly, we would like to be assured that the cost of the transfer is cheaper than what we have now. I am pleased to hear the noble Lord say that he is hopeful of an arrangement with the National Railway Museum. That will be a relief to me, because I expected to be told that the matter would be dealt with in Marsham Street, which would stop the collection of heritage artefacts for some years to come.

We fully support what has been said, all of which has been true. I think that the heritage railways deserve our fullest support.