YouSaid · the spoken record
Greg Smith
On the record 2020–2026
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“Yes, we looked at it and wondered whether this was a way of creating a framework that could then be applied to the existing road network and the existing motorway network. Clearly, the provisions relate to the trunk roads—the National Highways roads. I think the way clause 3 is drafted tightens that down to where capacity is being added, but we want the Committee to look at how much capacity is being added in order to make that a valid use of the powers in the Bill. Is it simply, for example, playing tunes with the speed limits or maybe adding a lane? What is it? In those circumstances, would we really be contemplating transferring sections of the existing national road network over to a private company? I do not think that is the intention, but the intention is not always the actuality.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Edmund King: Obviously if you look at the need for the lower Thames crossing—the congestion and the environmental issues currently at Dartford—it is easy to see that some alternative solution is needed. But, as you rightly say, this Bill is not just about the lower Thames crossing; it could allow that finance model with other schemes. It might have been easier if it was concentrated on the lower Thames crossing because then you could have brought in more restrictions and safeguards on tolls for motorists. As the Bill stands, on the one hand you have the Office of Rail and Road as the regulator for it, and then you have drivers who are the consumers, whether they are individual motorists or heavy goods vehicle drivers. To some extent, there might be a conflict between those two.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Q It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell. Good morning, gentlemen. On one level the Bill, particularly on Second Reading and in other narratives that have come out since it was first published, seems to be presented as answering the question: how do you solve a problem like the lower Thames crossing? But it equally has a lot of other provisions—perhaps it is due to badly drafted clauses or perhaps it is deliberate—that seem to allow tolling and road pricing to extend further than the lower Thames crossing. Is that something your organisations are concerned about, and do you feel enough focus has been given to parts of Bill related to everything other than the lower Thames crossing—to the general motorists in this country?”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is not relatively minor maintenance of itself that would enable the licence to be awarded. In our reading of it, it has to be linked back to enhancement and capacity—but perhaps the Minister will want to make that clearer.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is because there are lots of logistics businesses all competing with each other to deliver the best price. When there are cost pressures on the sector over the medium to long term, it generally keeps that margin where it is, but it results in the overall cost being passed on to the public. Unless it is priced ludicrously, the risk is more about the overall cost being passed on to the public rather than it breaking the operators, as it were.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“When we speak to our members, they tell us that what they want is a reliable transport system so they can factor in how much a job is going to take—how much time, how many drivers and what they should charge for it—and unreliability means it is much harder to do that. As a sector we potentially have more assets than we need to cover the same amount of ground, which is why it is really important for the sector that capacity increases and why we support, therefore, the delivery of the lower Thames crossing. In terms of a breaking point it is quite tricky because the reason that the sector has a low margin—between 1% and 3%—is because it is a highly competitive sector. It is a feature of the sector rather than something we would say we complain about.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Q Good afternoon, gentlemen. Can I start with Ben and Declan from the logistics and haulage sectors? There were a lot of questions during the last panel about the overall cost of the lower Thames crossing and any other schemes that might get a licence through the provisions of this Bill. I know from my role as a shadow Minister doing roundtables with Logistics UK and visiting haulage firms in my own constituency that margins are very tight in the sector right now. Equally I get that the juxtaposition of margins is even worse if you are stuck in traffic and cannot get across the Thames or to wherever it is you want to go. Can you comment on where the breaking point is for the sector? If a toll for an HGV, for example, came out too high, there would be a perverse incentive for haulage operators to use existing other routes to avoid that.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The toll should not be based just on the weight of vehicle, and wear and tear; we need to take into account the economic value that the logistics sector provides to the rest of the country. Ultimately, we all pay for that in a way that is slightly different from other road users.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Traditionally, such things have been done under general taxation, which we all pay for, but given the fiscal situation, we as a sector are not against a toll approach, a private finance approach, for this particular crossing. This crossing is one heavily used by the logistics sector. For us, it is a key part of the trading route between Scotland, the midlands and the north, and Europe; it is not simply an issue for the east of London, Essex and Kent. We want to see it happen and, as a sector, we are prepared to help pay for it. We just want to make sure that the toll takes into account the different vehicles, and that the different toll rates for different vehicles take the sector into account.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We would say that the inflationary impact is a balance between the direct input costs—paying a toll, fuel duty and taxes—and the indirect costs of congestion. As a sector, we want to keep those two things in balance, but one of the things that we do want is more investment in the transport network—road, rail and beyond—because some real hotspots are causing congestion and therefore passing the cost on. This is one of them, but it is not the only one. We need to make sure that is in balance. We are not disputing building this particular crossing, but not building things in general has a cost in itself. It is about making sure that this is fair, and therefore about considering the different ways of paying for it.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Lots of concern is about whether the Government have plans to use the Bill powers to introduce tolls on roads that are currently free. We certainly seek additional assurances on that point from the Minister.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“At the moment, we also have quite a fragile situation in the haulage sector—a particular rate of mergers and acquisitions, as well as a high rate of insolvencies—and that difficult climate has certainly been exacerbated by higher input costs and fuel costs. That should certainly be considered when the Bill is looked at. In the Bill itself, we are particularly concerned about the affordability of tolls and the transparency of how those tolls will be set, as well as the wider impact of the financing model. We would very much like MPs to think about and look at how tolls will be calculated, how they might increase over time, and how the ORR, as the regulator, will assess the affordability of tolls, because we do not feel that that is clearly set out, as the Bill stands.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It will also mean reduced carbon dioxide emissions because of less stopping and starting.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“A special new category of highway is created that is not subject to something called the network management duty, which is about joining things up in long-term planning and in short-term operations, such as where there is disruption. My concern is that for some of the schemes talked about, like the lower Thames crossing, it is going to be difficult to attract the private sector to invest without making it easier—for example, without reducing the risk of mayors getting in the way or trying to promote a railway line that would actually abstract some of the traffic.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“That said that by the end of 2026—so where we are now—the Government should publish an integrated strategy for road and rail. If you can see how you are going to improve the rail links and the road links, that would join up better and give confidence about where there should or should not be, for example, a change to the roads. The other dimension is the local angle. We have heard recently in the media about how mayors might be given more of a say on water, for example, but the Bill goes in the opposite direction. It actually weakens or removes the mayoral input on transport. Transport has been the totemic issue of devolution and, oddly, the Bill removes that.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Q Good afternoon. As you look at the totality of the Bill, including the elements around the lower Thames crossing, do you think the Government are joined up enough in looking at where new schemes, be that the lower Thames crossing or anything else that might come to pass, are delivered in respect of the existing infrastructure, local roads and intersections, and, as we just heard from the haulage sector, things like roadside driver welfare facilities? Does the Bill risk bringing nice new shiny things to the strategic road network without the necessary back-up to the existing intersections and roads that the new schemes will rely on? Ralph Smyth : It is a very good question. I point first to the second national infrastructure assessment, which was published three years ago.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Q Are you suggesting that those areas of the country that currently have a mayor should be locked into the Bill as key consultees, in planning speak, before anything can go ahead? Ralph Smyth : I would not want to leave out the rural areas where there are perhaps not mayors.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Absolutely right—do not leave the rural areas out. Ralph Smyth : Quite. The problem is the bigger context and the discussion about rewiring the state. That is talking about removing consultation, so simply a duty to consult to give your views might not be worth much. The problem is that it needs to make economic sense for the investors. The M6 toll did not make a profit for 20 years. You are going to have to tilt this, particularly for very big schemes like the LTC, to make it attractive for investors, and that could mean making things less affordable for drivers and there being less involvement for mayors, despite transport being one of their big issues.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“If you are commuting and doing the same journey every day or if a haulage firm is doing the same routes, it might take longer for a response to happen. As we are talking about tipping points, I will also talk about climate change, because some figures from the Environment Agency have shown that by 2050—not long after some of these roads might be built—about half the UK transport network will flood regularly. That obviously means a lot of disruption and a lot of increased costs for the operator or owner of the assets. Those things will also affect, given where we are going, our use of roads, railways and everything else.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It has done that with the private sector working through concessions. Under a concession, there are strong incentives for private contractors to keep their costs as low as possible, because it directly impacts their bottom line, which is completely the opposite for a RAB model.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“This will certainly be the first time it is been used for roads. The main issue is that there are quite limited incentives for cost control within a regulated asset base. If you are the private contractor, you have significant incentives to increase the capital expenditure on the regulated asset base to make it as large as possible, because that means you get as large a return on your investment as possible. The organisation standing in the way of that is the Office of Rail and Road in this case, and it has never overseen a RAB before. It would not even be able to look at other organisations or regulators that have overseen a RAB for roads, because there are none internationally. We have a better model through concessions. France has built more miles of motorway this century than the UK has in total.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“You can talk about how it is more difficult to build due to UK geographical or geological issues, but fundamentally, just those front-loaded costs make it very difficult to build anything cost-effectively. Because of that, there is a risk that this model is adopted as a way of taking some of those costs off the books without the right level of scrutiny.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Many people often dismiss our problems around infrastructure as a problem of too little money going in, but over the past five years or so—a period that includes covid, but also years either side of it—we spent about £308 per head on Government public infrastructure investment. In France it is more like £271 and in Germany about £251. When you account for that cost premium, we end up getting about £180 of what the French or the Germans would get. For me, that is the No.1 problem. About £300 million has been spent on the planning process for the lower Thames crossing. If you add together the world’s longest road tunnel, which was built in Norway, and a tunnel built 282 metres under the sea, you just about reach that. They are building much more complicated projects for much less.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“If fuel duty were solely for mitigating the externalities of carbon emissions, combined with the upkeep, maintenance and addition of roads, it would be around 35p, rather than the about 52p it is now, so fuel duty is already higher than the economic impacts of roads and emissions. If you kept fuel duty where it is, or cancelled out the 5p cut—the scrapping of which is perennially promised—and added road user charging on top, that would be quite a significant burden for motorists to bear. But ideally, new infrastructure would be funded through some form of road user charging. The people who drive get the benefits, so that is only fair.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The question we have to ask is, as fuel duty revenue declines, because people are switching to electric vehicles, will there be the same impetus to put money into the roads? Currently, motorists do not get a very fair deal: they pay a lot in tax, but they do not see the same return in road building, as the money tends to go into the general pot. You might want to, say, hypothecate that revenue—that is one thing—but road user charging gets around the question of politicians attempting to use infrastructure money generally to put it towards your primary, day-to-day spending, whether that is on the NHS or £100 to deal with the cost of living, et cetera. There needs to be some way of insulating long-term infrastructure funding from those, and that is the advantage of tolling.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The first road investment strategy was much more ambitious than the ones that followed. That was partly due to covid, but now we are out the other end, we see reduced ambition on road building. Road maintenance has gone up a bit, which is positive, but at the same time, we are not building the projects. It is important to look at which projects are appropriate for tolling; bridges and tunnels make perfect sense. In America, lots of additional lanes that have their own toll are built. Based on our geography and the amount of road infrastructure we have, you probably could not do that—when you are adding a super-fast lane on a seven-lane motorway, that works; it does not really work here—but clearly there are lots of bottlenecks and opportunities to finance things via tolls.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“At the end of the day, what we want to see is good user experience, as well as good business experience for both our members and their customers. It is in no one’s interest to have a system that is bureaucratic, challenging and leads to abrasion, when you are reducing the barriers to reduce abrasion and exactly that kind of thing. If you are just moving it elsewhere, it does not really meet its purpose. We are keen to see that this is as technically guardrailed as possible to make sure that end customers have a good experience.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Right at the core of the problem with almost any measure or change of this scale is the technical detail. Perhaps that is not as interesting as the macro questions around how things are funded and so on, but it is what really impacts us and everyday users. We have seen in a number of major changes in how road funding and wider funding happens, such as the eVED scheme, that the technical detail has not been considered up front. That has led to huge stress for the sector and potentially administration bills in the hundreds of millions of pounds. We want to see, in any change of this scale, especially if it will encompass an expansion of barrierless charging to more current barriered toll operations, that technical detail is guardrailed in right from the start.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“There might be an inconsistency in the ramping up of charges if you do not pay, or in how that charging is structured and the portals that you can use—it is all varied. If you can create a national framework for individual specificity—I am not saying that everyone has to be exactly the same in what they are delivering, but you need to have the same guardrails and structure that enable someone to have consistency of experience. That would enable fleets to advise their customers, who might be someone running grocery stores across the country or a tourist who is arriving at an airport in the north or the south, and to train their staff to be able to give consistent advice and experience. Having every scheme with its own approach could be deeply challenging.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Q I do not know if you heard some of this morning’s evidence, but we had a question this morning around whether there should be a national scheme with a single log-in, as opposed to every scheme having its own charging mechanism, if you are going to have barrierless tolling. In answering that question, can you give your thoughts on the impact that will have not just on schemes built under the RAB model proposed in the Bill but all the other road charging we already have? For example, here in London, we have the congestion charge. It is dressed up as an environmental scheme, but we all know it is just road charging. Equally, other schemes are popping up.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We have unfortunately seen that even in great measures, and in London the level of friction has meant that some car club companies had to fold. It is challenging to operate where you have a split, with every borough having its own rules—all of those interactions have been deeply challenging. With more consistency, we can have a strategic vision on how to deliver within that framework. That is a much stronger approach to enable the investment from ourselves and the customers to be able to keep mobility moving in this country.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The process for awarding that licence currently sits with the Government, but we are in discussion with the Department about our future resourcing to deliver this work.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I have worked in the water sector, and I worked in telecommunications for a number of years, including overseeing the arrangements that led to the roll-out of superfast broadband, among other things. A number of colleagues have worked in other sectors, spanning aviation, water and others. Your question about the risk of teething problems is well placed. I am confident that we have the lead time to build in the necessary arrangements and resourcing to get ourselves ready for the new arrangements. One of the important things to bear in mind is that the regulator’s role takes place once a licence has been awarded. A licence for the lower Thames crossing—the first scheme that will be enabled by the Bill—is some way off yet.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Our interactions on the rail side cover publicly and commercially funded infrastructure, and managers and operators. I could refer to a number of examples, including the work that we do on price controls on the high-speed link down to the Channel tunnel, and interactions with international passenger operators looking to expand operations there. On the road side, we obviously have experience as the monitor and the organisation responsible for holding National Highways to account. We are certainly looking to build on the engineering, economics and finance operations. We also have consumer policy experience across both road and rail. I started out in economic regulation just over 25 years ago.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We are looking at the suite of skills and capability that we anticipate needing across, for example, corporate finance, supporting the stakeholder group—that is an important part of the Bill—and the engineering and operations capability. I am confident that we have the lead time to get in place the team that we need. We are in discussion with the Department about the resourcing necessary to secure that.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“In terms of the ORR’s capability, we are working closely with the Department to look at the arrangements that might apply to, for example, licensing. This is an important point I want to stress: the Bill gives us the duties and powers that we want to see, but the really important thing for making a lot of these schemes work is that the licensing arrangements are the right ones, and that you have the licence conditions in place to hold the company to account properly and scrutinise its delivery not just on construction but on operation, its approach to tolling and so forth. In terms of having the resource in place to do that, I am currently working with a small team.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Q I am grateful for that answer. This is not a criticism of anyone in the ORR right now, but as we see with so many projects, under whatever model they are built, unexpected things happen; things do not go according to plan. Often, hindsight is that wonderful thing: “Oh, I wish we had just…” What preparation work is the ORR doing, or what additional resource does it need from the Department for Transport, to ensure the lower Thames crossing, as the guinea pig for this new model, does not end with those “Oh, I wish we had…” questions being asked?”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Matt Palmer: I am an historic mega-project constructor. I have done many big projects across the world and in the UK. Let’s talk about diesel and its cost. It is part of lower Thames crossing’s requirements, which were set in 2022, for us to construct to carbon neutral, and actually, it ends up with us being in line with the sixth carbon budget. That has been a requirement in our project. We have executed it. It is in part of our development consent order. It is required now by law and by statute through the development consent order. The vast majority of our diesel is being replaced by HVO, for which we are currently paying £1.70 per litre.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Q Will, you mentioned construction in your answer—this is a question to both of you. When organisations are considering regulation, licensing or any factor around the construction of anything at all, but we will take the lower Thames crossing as the example today, do you need much greater freedom within that to license something along what many would call common sense principles, certainly when it comes to cost control? For example, I think it is pretty obvious that the banning of diesel in construction plant is going to make the project more expensive. Where do you sit, both from experience of other projects and looking forward, on factors like that? You might find yourself in a difficult place between what Government want and what the ultimate licensee wants, and having to find a happy medium on that.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Q Just to confirm, for people watching out there who think diesel is £2 a litre, is that plus VAT? Matt Palmer: We pay £1.70; our contractors do not pay VAT on it. It is marginally over a current diesel cost, but we ran a competitive process and it was competitively bid.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Those would set the commercial terms—the expectation around allowed revenue and so forth—and then the ORR would come in as the regulator at the start of the price control and hold the company to account against that, by monitoring and scrutinising the delivery against the relevant milestones on the construction.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The model used at Heathrow has also been relatively successful. Being totally transparent, when we first started talking to Government about this project, I felt that a more traditional concession model might be more appropriate, but the way in which the project is now being procured, and in particular the addition of the bridge, means that the RAB model looks really very interesting and, I would probably argue, more attractive from an investing perspective.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“As a contractor, an investor or a Government, all stakeholders have to be prepared for the expectation of cost overrun. Asking an investor to take uncapped cost overrun into its accounts does not necessarily mean that it is a terrible outcome; it just means that I cannot price equity.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“What is important is that there are mechanics in the construction process or the construction phase that incentivise contractors to stick to budget as much as they can. Again, credit to the way in which the Bill is written and the way LTC is being procured—this idea of cost sharing and certain elements of cost being shared between contractor and Government and rolled into RAB. Having those sorts of features that really—no disrespect to Roger—hold the contractor’s feet to the fire in terms of cost control are very sensible. These projects can be delivered on time and on budget. We have just finished the North East Link project in Melbourne where we tunnelled under the Yarra, which is quite a complicated river. We did it on time and on budget.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“You have to look at the stages that we need to go through so that, when we put a shovel in the ground, the scale and scope have been determined. In the majority of cases, cost overruns come from uncertainty, which is often there before we start work; things have not been properly nailed down with the appropriate parties. Yes, hold the contractor’s feet to the fire, but there are other parties and elements: the designers, the ecology—all the other things that go into a proper, well-delivered project. There needs to be some measure of accountability there also. Often, at the other end of the contract, we find that being transferred—not necessarily fully realised—into the contractor’s risk. That is where you get problems.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“If that is a key stakeholder requirement and the public purse can afford it, it is something that should be done, but those are decisions outside a contractor’s position.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is important to say that the Bill narrowly defines when a licence can be granted: for a new road, a capacity-enhancing improvement or the continued operation of a road that has been previously licensed under this regime. This is about major strategic infrastructure; it is not about, as in the example the hon. Member gave, putting in tolls when a new camera or something is introduced. That clearly is not the case. Some of the evidence earlier also suggested that our geographical constraints would make that very difficult anyway, even if that was what we wanted to do, which, I will state again for the record, is not the case.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Bill is creating an additional financing option for major strategic road infrastructure, specifically for trunk roads in England. It is deliberately a framework because, rather than legislate for one individual project, it is possible that there may be more suitable projects in the future, but that does not mean—I want to be clear—that this will become the default model for road investment. Any future use would need to meet the requirements of the Bill and be considered on its own merits. As Steve Gooding from the RAC said this morning, I am happy to confirm that, at the moment, there are not any other schemes that are being considered for use under this Bill.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Member may have an amendment that he thinks will deal with that, but I can assure him that we have gone through extensive discussions with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel on this. I refer him to Logistics UK’s evidence this morning. They said that they thought the Bill was relatively strongly drafted in terms of closing the loopholes. It is probably worth saying that, as the hon. Gentleman will know, the Bill’s intent is also important. My statements on the record on Second Reading, probably a number of times in Committee, I imagine, and today will all be relevant should, at some point in the future, a future Secretary of State want to do something that is clearly outside the scope and intention of the Bill. I will say, again, for the record, that this Bill does not provide a backdoor for widespread tolling.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Q Minister, we had this discussion on Second Reading, but I want to ask you again after you have had a few days to reflect on it. You said clearly at the Dispatch Box that you do not want to bring in road pricing and tolling on other roads, but the Bill still leaves a little bit of a lawyers’ paradise where it could be argued that that power would exist, either for you, for the current Secretary of State or for any future Secretary of State. Will you amend the Bill to properly rule out, in statutory form as opposed to a commitment at the Dispatch Box, it being used to extend tolling and road pricing to other roads? Justin Madders : We are pretty clear that it is not a backdoor to road pricing. The hon.”
House of Commons29 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗