Baroness Crawley
That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty as follows:
“Most Gracious Sovereign—We, Your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, beg leave to thank Your Majesty for the most gracious Speech which Your Majesty addressed to both Houses of Parliament”.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Baroness Merron) (Lab)
My Lords, it is a real honour to open today’s debate on behalf of His Majesty’s Government. When it was my privilege to close the last debate on the last gracious Speech, I spoke about the Mental Health Bill and the Tobacco and Vapes Bill. I thank noble Lords across the House for their engagement and thoughtful scrutiny of both those pieces of legislation, which have delivered significant Acts of Parliament and what I would describe as significant acts of change for the better. Those two Acts are among the most important steps for improving public health in decades—cornerstones of the Government’s commitment to reduce inequalities in this Parliament.
This gracious Speech sets out how we will go even further to make our country stronger and fairer through a renewal of our public services. I hope noble Lords will welcome the progress that the Government have made since taking office in respect of the health service, including action on waiting lists, now down by half a million, while the number of people waiting less than 18 weeks for planned care now stands at 65.3%, up from 59%. We see ambulances responding to strokes and heart attacks arriving five crucial minutes faster compared to last year. We have met our manifesto commitment to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health staff three years early.
Underpinning everything, we have set out a new direction for the future of healthcare through the 10-year health plan. We are reforming the NHS to make it fit for the future. We are shifting from sickness to prevention, from analogue to digital and from hospital to community. As noble Lords have regularly observed, we face an uphill battle, which is what the noble Lord, Lord Darzi, found in his independent review. One of the noble Lord’s conclusions was that past legislation was too rigid and overly specific, which had the effect of increasing bureaucracy and diluting accountability over time, and of this we have certainly taken heed.
I welcome, as I hope noble Lords will, the Health Bill outlined in the gracious Speech, which is an important part of the delivery of our 10-year plan. In summary, the Bill will cut bureaucracy; it will improve patient safety through a single patient record; it will ensure that patients receive care that is better tailored to their needs, when and where they need it; and it will help us to make the shift from sickness to prevention, while improving patient safety and patient experience. Importantly, it will put more resources into the front line through the abolition of NHS England.
Noble Lords know only too well that, far too often, patients experience care that is fragmented and inaccessible. Patients and carers find themselves telling their story time and again, every time they meet a new clinician or a new healthcare professional. That is not just an inconvenience; it actually adds to the strain on people when they least need it. It also risks the safety and quality of services.
Alongside this, without integrated data the NHS misses opportunities to diagnose and treat people early, leaving too many seeking urgent care once their health has deteriorated. It is common sense to note that, when clinicians do not have all the facts to hand, they simply cannot make the best decisions to support the interests of patients. Equally, we cannot sensibly expect patients and carers to keep track of all the different documents, from all the different specialists, for all the different appointments in all the different providers. The Health Bill creates the statutory basis for the NHS to bring patients’ health and social care records into one place, enabling people to access their own health record, securely, through the NHS app. We are actively shifting the NHS from analogue to digital, empowering patients to take informed decisions and giving them more choice and control.
Putting patients at the heart of care means devolving decisions to a local level to meet the specific needs of the local population, where different services can better integrate around the needs of the patient. That is why integrated care boards will directly commission a greater proportion of NHS services. However, some aspects must be and are best done nationally. Where that is the case, we need to ensure that arrangements are efficient and have clear and strong accountability to Parliament.
The current system of two national bodies overseeing the NHS—the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England—fails both those tests. That is why responsibility for all but the most specialised commissioning functions will be transferred to integrated care boards, including primary care, dentistry, ophthalmology and pharmacy commissioning. Integrated care boards are best placed to integrate care as local strategic commissioners, and we are empowering providers through foundation trust reform, giving them more flexibility to design and deliver healthcare around local needs. We will bring the functions of NHS England within the department. In other words, we are abolishing NHS England.
Through and across other departments of government, we are acting to continue to make the country fairer. Through MHCLG, we have already taken decisive action to fix the foundations of the housing system. Through the Renters’ Rights Act, we are strengthening security for 11 million tenants. We have ended the unfair system of no-fault evictions and given people greater stability in their homes. Alongside this, the Planning and Infrastructure Act is making it faster and simpler to build the homes and infrastructure our communities need. The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act ensures that power moves away from Whitehall, giving people the right to make decisions about the things that matter to them, where they matter. We have made £78 billion available in the latest local government finance settlement, which is a 6.1% increase from the previous year.
This year’s gracious Speech brings forward reforms that make it easier for people to have a say, to own and stay in their homes, and to see their local areas and local voices improved. As outlined in the gracious Speech, the Representation of the People Bill will protect the integrity of our elections and inject a new vigour into our democracy by tightening the rules on political finance, improving transparency, introducing tougher measures to tackle the intimidation of candidates and electoral staff, and by extending the right to vote to 16 year-olds and 17 year-olds—the biggest expansion of the franchise in over half a century.
We are not just giving young people a greater say in our democracy. Through the commonhold and leasehold reform Bill, we are protecting their rights when they take their first steps on the property ladder, by fixing abuses and ensuring commonhold replaces leasehold by default. This Bill will make owning a home fairer and the provisions more transparent. Far too many leaseholders face unregulated and unaffordable ground rents; they face unjustified permissions and administration fees, unreasonable or extortionate charges, and conditions imposed with little or no consultation. The Bill will cut unfair charges, give people more control over how their buildings are run and ensure that they cannot lose their home for minor disputes or unexpected costs.
Alongside the ongoing implementation of reforms to the leasehold system which are already in statute, the Bill makes progress towards ending the feudal leasehold system so that future homeowners can buy with greater confidence and fewer hidden costs. It will cap ground rents for leaseholders today and will set a decisive path towards eradicating them, ending this exploitative practice of money for nothing.
Many leaseholders, as we know and have debated many times, are also trapped in unsuitable homes that they are unable to sell. It is a disgrace that nearly nine years on from the appalling tragedy at Grenfell Tower, there are still people in this country who live in buildings with unsafe cladding. The building remediation Bill will deliver on our commitment to fix the cladding crisis and, crucially, make those responsible pay towards fixing the problem that they caused, so that residents can feel safe in their homes and are no longer stuck in property that they cannot sell or move on from. There will be clear legal duties to fix buildings and penalties for those who fail.
Everybody deserves to live in a decent, safe, secure and affordable home, yet too many families in need of a social rented home are languishing on local authority waiting lists, being forced to struggle in the private rented sector or in expensive temporary accommodation. We have committed to invest £39 billion in the social and affordable housing programme over the next decade, with a further £3.6 billion to tackle the root causes of homelessness—and we are going further. The Social Housing Bill will help more families to access a safe and affordable home. It will protect the homes we already have and give tenants greater security, particularly those who need extra support, such as victims of domestic violence. It will also keep homes in the social sector through sensible reforms to the right to buy while ensuring that, where they are sold, the public purse is protected. This Government are putting the social housing sector on to a secure and sure footing.
We will also continue to keep our promise to transfer powers out of Westminster. The overnight visitor levy Bill will grant new revenue-raising powers to local leaders, as a step towards a new era of fiscal devolution in England, so that places can raise funding locally and invest it back into the services and spaces that people use every single day. Mayors will have the power to raise money and invest it into projects that improve their areas, to raise living standards and to support economic growth. They will be able to decide for themselves and not rely on central government to do it for them.
If I had to summarise these reforms, I would say that they are about something in some ways simple but also deeply fundamental. They are about ensuring that more people can live in a safe, secure home. They support better health, stronger communities and a growing economy.
To that last point, this growth also depends on world-class infrastructure, and our economic security depends on a strong transport network, whether of roads, rail or runways, so the Department for Transport is driving economic growth and transforming how people travel. It is making journeys greener, safer and healthier for all, as well as making them more available.
We are delivering a more integrated, reliable and future-focused transport system by improving connectivity, strengthening capacity and making travel more affordable. We are doing this by modernising rail, investing in better roads and empowering local areas to shape the transport services that they need. We are also setting a long-term vision for how people and places connect to drive the transition to net zero.
For too long, passengers have had to put up with unreliable services, confusing fares and no single body accountable for delivering a railway that works. I am glad to say that the Railways Bill puts an end to this by establishing Great British Railways, a new publicly owned company with sole responsibility for delivering for passengers and freight operators. Whether it be through simplifying the complex fares and ticketing system, through developing a timetable that actually works or through ensuring the needs of local communities are no longer ignored, GBR will deliver it. The Bill also establishes a powerful passenger watchdog to ensure that passengers are consistently championed at every turn. In addition, Northern Powerhouse Rail will create more reliable and more frequent services between the north of England’s great cities, so that more housing and better access to jobs, services and culture will have opportunities to grow.
As part of our drive to literally move forward, the Civil Aviation (Consumer Protection and Regulatory Reform) Bill strengthens consumer rights and promotes fair treatment of passengers. We are also making sure those rights are properly enforced by equipping the Civil Aviation Authority with direct powers to take action if airlines or airports fail consumers. The Bill will also promote economic growth through better infrastructure and improve aviation safety.
As set out in the gracious Speech, the highways financing Bill will help to unlock private investment in major road schemes. It gives the Government more ways to fund building and to maintain large-scale road infrastructure projects, while reducing the burden on the taxpayer.
The gracious Speech gives us the tools we need to build a stronger and fairer Britain. I and my Front-Bench colleagues look forward to taking these measures through your Lordships’ House and to working with noble Lords on all sides of the House.
It is only fair for patients to expect world-class healthcare that works around their needs; it is only fair for families to expect safe and affordable housing, and it is only fair that young people should never be cut off from opportunities, no matter where they live.
Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)
My Lords, I declare my interest as the vice-president of the Local Government Association and vice-president of the National Association of Local Councils.
Housing appears to have taken a back seat in the Government’s agenda. For all the talk of 1.5 million new homes, we heard no mention of that target in the King’s Speech. When we asked for a progress update last month, we were instead referred to a Written Answer from February. Can we have those updated figures now, please? How many dwellings will be completed this coming year? According to the department’s official statistics, an estimated 342,100 net additional homes were delivered in England between the start of this Parliament and March this year. At this rate, it will take over five and a half more years to meet the target of 1.5 million homes. The Government must not shy away from these facts. When will we see an improvement in the figures?
We Conservatives delivered 1 million new homes over the last Parliament and had a plan to build 1.6 million homes in the next. Despite 14 years in opposition, Labour did not and do not have a plan to meet their less ambitious target. We knew this, and my right honourable friend the Leader of the Opposition in the other place, when she was the shadow Housing Secretary, told the then Secretary of State that she had been stitched up by her colleagues. We support the delivery of more housing and my right honourable friend in the other place offered our help, which throughout these recent Bills has not been taken up. Instead, this Government’s choices, on top of global pressures, have left us with high energy, labour and regulatory costs, pushing up the overall cost of housebuilding and leaving many consented sites unviable.
Time and time again on the doorstep, we heard of young people’s desire to own their own home. Too many are trapped in the rental sector, and even there the Government are not helping the supply of rental properties. Smaller landlords in particular are exiting the market. What is the Government’s assessment of this trend and the impact on the supply of rental properties? The Renters’ Rights Act is now in force, and we are already seeing the consequences of this. Build-to-rent developers are affected, too, with the Act expected to increase the number of rent appeals even further. Is the data on the average time for property chambers to process rent appeal cases now being collected, and what does it show so far? The Government are also committed to capping ground rents through the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, and we look forward to this Bill and to looking at these ideas in detail. In the meantime, what action is planned in relation to service charges, which are getting higher and higher every single year?
We are also seeing long waiting lists in social housing. Thanks to this Government’s choices to increase employer national insurance and taxes on business, unemployment has now risen to 5%. Even worse, youth unemployment especially is increasing, with one in six young people unable to find a job. Young people have no hope of getting on the housing ladder under this Government. Where do they go? This Government risk creating a vicious circle, where more and more people are forced to look to social housing. Yet, shockingly, around 33,000 new social tenancies each year are going to households where the lead tenant is not a UK national. The Government are spending around £4 billion a year to deliver about 30,000 new social homes annually, meaning that spending on the affordable homes programme is going entirely on housing non-nationals. How is this sustainable?
Housing is a major policy area which is fundamental to solving the cost of living crisis. However, we are not seeing it prioritised in this debate. We need a constructive policy environment to tackle these issues, not just policy tweaks or arbitrary state interventions that do not fix problems at source. This House deserves to see proposals for genuine solutions, as well as clear figures, to ensure we see actual delivery. I look forward to the Minister’s response.
The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill) (Lab)
My Lords, it is an honour to be closing today’s debate on behalf of His Majesty’s Government. I extend my thanks to His Majesty for his gracious Speech and to all noble Lords for their thoughtful contributions, except perhaps for the last one, which I shall mostly ignore.
I begin by echoing what my noble friend Lady Merron said in her admirable opening speech. She set out clearly and concisely the scope of the Government’s programme for the second Session in the areas of health, housing and transport. I am grateful to her not only for her clarity but for being a valued friend and colleague, as is the Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government here on the Front Bench.
As my noble friend Lady Merron was in relation to health, I am immensely proud of the progress this Government have made in laying the foundations for better public services, particularly in transport. Transport and the railway have been my life’s work, so it is a privilege to be part of the biggest transformation of the railway in over 30 years. We have also enabled a quiet revolution in bus service provision through the Bus Services Act and opened real opportunity for British innovation with the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Act. I am grateful to all noble Lords for their contributions on these Acts.
I was wondering yesterday and the day before how my noble friends closing these debates would cope with so many varied contributions, and now I have to do the same. I will do my best, but I am reassured that noble Lords who have spoken with such knowledge and passion will raise all their points in the passage of the Bills that are in the King’s Speech.
Before I talk about the Bills themselves, I will address a variety of other matters raised by noble Lords today. I start with the noble Lord, Lord Butler, who spoke widely and wisely, particularly about the Civil Service. I am delighted that he commended the new Cabinet Secretary and his views on impartiality are, of course, supported. The noble Lord, Lord Kakkar, spoke about the peerage removal Bill. We will take careful note of what he said tonight and when he speaks on the Bill itself.
My noble friend Lord Jordan spoke about accidents and, while I cannot say that we will take up his argument about an approach across government, he can rest assured that individual parts of government take this subject extremely seriously. My noble friend Lady Jones of Whitchurch spoke widely about the huge desirability of industrial harmony through dialogue and partnership. I echo that and, in terms of the progress on the railway towards Great British Railways, we will pursue it, and I am pleased that she welcomed the new arrangements in social care.
The noble Baronesses, Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb and Lady Young of Old Scone, raised the absence of the environment from the subjects for debate. I cannot account for that, but this Government are very serious about this subject. Let me give three examples: the pursuit of net zero, the vigorous action by my noble friend Lady Hayman of Ullock on farming and the environment, and the pursuit of more freight by rail are all individual examples of the Government’s care about the environment in the future. I will ask my noble friend Lady Hayman to write to the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, further on that subject.
My noble friend Lady Linforth raised clean air in public spaces for kids. Again, I defer to my noble friend Lady Hayman of Ullock on that subject.
The noble Lord, Lord Robathan, made a wide-ranging speech on various subjects. He raised antisemitism, and I cannot believe that he cannot see a very strong response from this Government to the recent outrages to the Jewish community.
The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, spoke passionately about food standards. The Government thank her for her work in this area. I therefore hope that I have covered most of the subjects raised that do not really appear to be covered by the main subjects of this debate today.
Moving to health, this Government have already taken serious action on waiting lists. They are down by half a million and the number of people waiting less than 18 weeks for planned care is now at 65.3%, up from 59%. Ambulances responding to strokes and heart attacks are arriving 5 minutes faster compared to last year and we are meeting our manifesto commitment to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health staff, three years early. That is a foundation which we are not yet satisfied with, but it is a reasonable start.
The objectives of the NHS Bill have been debated in many contributions today. My noble friends Lady Nargund and Lady Ritchie of Downpatrick both fully supported the Bill. Others took a view that care needed to be taken about how this huge change, the abolition of NHS England, should be done—in particular, the noble Baronesses, Lady Shawcross-Wolfson and Lady Bray. We also note the important points made by the noble Lord, Lord Kakkar, on this subject. It is a large step, and this Government are committed to doing it wisely, carefully and properly.
My noble friend Lord Babudu and the noble Baroness, Lady Shawcross-Wolfson, talked about prevention, which is important and one of the principal features of the Government’s policy. The noble Lord, Lord Kamall, and the noble Baroness, Lady Watkins, talked about the connections between health and place. As it happens, the Secretary of State for Health in the other place is making a major speech on this tomorrow.
There was a lot of discussion about the single patient record, data security, careful use and comprehensiveness. The noble Baronesses, Lady Bray, Lady Tyler and Lady Walmsley, the noble Lord, Lord Patel—who was particularly helpful—and my noble friends Lady Pitkeathley and Lady Nargund all supported it. We listened with interest to the noble Lord, Lord Dodds, on the experience of Northern Ireland. My noble friend Lord Davies talked about the particular circumstances about Palantir. We are reviewing the federated data platform contract in advance of the break point. The single patient record is different: it will be supplied through contracts with multiple suppliers with no single supplier dominating. No decisions have been made about who those will be.
My noble friend Lady Donaghy and the noble Lord, Lord Black of Brentwood, talked about osteoporosis and the fracture liaison services. The Government are committed to rolling out fracture liaison services everywhere by 2030, and my noble friend Lady Merron is well prepared to respond to any new issues in that respect.
My noble friend Lord Winston talked about egg freezing. I am singularly unqualified to deal with this subject in any practical way, but my noble friend Lady Merron has listened very carefully to everything he said and has committed herself to write to him.
Similarly, the noble Lord, Lord Mott, spoke about cancer and maternity services. My noble friend Lady Merron listened to that carefully too and is acting on it already. Lastly, the noble Lord, Lord Mawson, talked about his Bromley-by-Bow experience—as a matter of coincidence, he has shown me around that very thing—and it is an obvious long-term experience for government to take an interest in.
On health and local government, the first thing to say is on the Social Housing Bill. The Government believe that everyone deserves to live in a decent, safe, secure and affordable home. The Bill will provide much- needed social housing stock, give affordable housing providers the clarity and confidence they need to build more social homes, and better protect tenants who are victims of domestic abuse by providing them with greater security and stability. The Bill delivers on the manifesto commitments to prioritise the building of new social rented homes and to better protect our existing stock.
A number of noble Lords supported the concept of the Bill, but, unsurprisingly, there was some criticism of it. I can tell the noble Baroness, Lady Eaton, that the proportion of people in rented accommodation is stable and has been since 2013-14. There has been a 3% increase in available homes in quarter 1 of 2026, and buy-to-let loans have increased by 14% in a year. Therefore it is not evident that there is a reduction. The noble Lord, Lord Bailey of Paddington, talked about stamp duty but did not explain where the £11 billion that it would cost to abolish it would come from. The Government are working with the Mayor of London on an emergency housing package to enable rapid delivery of what London needs.
The noble Lords, Lord Young of Cookham, Lord Best and Lord Truscott, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Shah and Lady Watkins, commented on various aspects of leasehold reform. I am confident that, when the Bill comes forward, they will have much to say during its passage. The Government believe the Bill is moving in the right direction to deal with what a number of noble Lords this evening have described variously, up to scandalous. The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chelmsford is right that people are entitled to a home and that young people are entitled to have the certainty of knowing where they are going to live. There are powerful arguments for housing reform and I hope that she is convinced that the Government will move in the right direction.
The noble Baroness, Lady Thornhill, referred to social housing. My noble friend remarked that the £39 billion that the Government have allocated to that subject will certainly help provide it. She also referred to SME builders. The £16 billion National Housing Bank, started on 1 April, includes provision for financial support and loans for SMEs in the housing market.
The noble Lord, Lord Best, spoke powerfully about all aspects of the Bills that are being brought forward. I am sure he will make valuable contributions to the discussion of them when they arrive.
I move on to the four transport Bills. The Railways Bill will deliver on the Government’s manifesto. I was enormously encouraged by hearing from the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, who all of us with any connection with the railways admire and respect. As somebody who was there when the railways were nationalised in 1948, he has pretty good experience of what is going on. He is right that running railways is a job for railway people. The intention of this Bill is not, as it is wrongly characterised, to give any more powers to the Secretary of State—both the Secretary of State and I want less power—because the railway deserves to be run by people who understand how to make it work better, which is what passengers want.
I have the greatest respect for the noble Lord, Lord McLoughlin. However, we are not starting from where he would like us to be but from where are at the moment. The railway needs an injection of vigour to get better reliability, drive up patronage and drive down costs. That has been seriously absent in the railway post Covid, even though it is run by allegedly vigorous private sector operators.
My noble friends Lady Dacres and Lady Wilcox talked about the benefits of transport investment. They are right that transport is not an end in itself. Transport is the means by which you create growth, jobs and homes. The noble Baroness, Lady Dacres, talked about the Bakerloo line extension to Lewisham. It is up to the Mayor of London to make the case and I know that he will do so. She talked about long-term finance. This Government have given that mayor the first long-term financial settlement for some considerable time, so that he can both spend the money better and decide where it should go.
My noble friend Lady Wilcox talked about it in terms of Wales. This Government have put over £400 million of railway investment into Wales, creating new stations in south Wales and better services in north Wales. That is an example of working together to create benefits throughout Great Britain. I am very pleased to join my noble friend Lord Faulkner of Worcester in congratulating the Talyllyn Railway on its 75th anniversary in preservation—it was the world’s first preserved railway—which is great. He also talked more substantively about encouraging freight, which the Government are extraordinarily keen to do. Freight will form a part of the Railways Bill and a commitment will be made to freight growth in the railway. He also referred to the new service between Bristol and Oxford. That is an example, post Covid, of getting towards the new era and working collaboratively to produce new services. I am sure that Great British Railways will produce more of them.
The high-speed rail Bill described in the gracious Speech is currently headed the High Speed Rail (Crewe-Manchester) Bill. The noble Lord, Lord Moylan, is right that it was put forward by the previous Government. However, since the previous Government summarily cancelled phase 2a of HS2 between Birmingham and Manchester, the Bill has languished. It is now being reactivated because, contrary to what he said, the Government are funding Northern Powerhouse Rail. In fact, this is the first plan for railways for the north of England that is properly funded. Part of that Bill is necessary to create the new line between Manchester and Liverpool.
In the meantime, the trans-Pennine upgrade, which is funded and in delivery on time and on budget, will improve connectivity across the Pennines. On improvements east of the Pennines, the railways in Yorkshire will come sooner because they do not need new railways. There is a credible plan for the whole of Northern Powerhouse Rail. I am very happy to take the noble Baroness, Lady Pidgeon, through the plans to describe precisely what they are. They are funded and there is a considerable amount of money in this spending review to move forward with them.
My noble friend Lord Berkeley and the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, referred to HS2. The Secretary of State for Transport in the other place made a Statement about HS2 yesterday. It is a scandal. I am sure that my noble friend Lord Berkeley can be satisfied that he did tell us that it would cost a lot of money. But I am not sure he told us that the thing had been hideously mismanaged by a series of Governments and management boards of HS2. That is the lesson to be learned: not to not do these schemes but to do them properly. The trans-Pennine upgrade is one example of a scheme that is being done properly and on time.
It is not true that Britain cannot do these things. What is true, as the review recently set out, is that you should be slow to start these projects, decide what they are and then be quick to build them. This one was the other way around. The specification was obviously done by zealots. Part of it is incapable of being delivered because it is so technically advanced. That was wrong when it started and we are having to put it right now.
The highway financing Bill is not a bureaucratic Bill, contrary to what the noble Lord, Lord Robathan, said. It is a perfectly decent proposition about how to fund the Lower Thames Crossing and other future major road schemes. The noble Baroness, Lady Pidgeon, is right that there has to be genuine value for money for taxpayers. We are not proposing to do anything at all like Thames Water, for very obvious reasons, and there is absolutely no doubt that during the passage of the Bill we will debate why the regulated asset base is right for this class, as the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, pointed out.
The noble Lord, Lord Moylan, is right to say that the civil aviation Bill, which has a number of powers, including much better powers for consumers, replaces EU legislation. He has pointed out to me on numerous occasions recently in dealing with statutory instruments that the powers to do that run out very shortly, and this Bill is necessary to replace them. We will debate to what extent it is desirable or necessary to have the Civil Aviation Authority making some of the rules when we get there. The Government’s view is that it is quite reasonable to delegate some of these powers to a competent authority, leaving some others to the authority of the Secretary of State.
I am very pleased that the noble Baroness, Lady Pidgeon, raised micromobility. This House has debated micromobility, e-scooters and the like a number of times in the last nearly two years now. Although it did not feature in the gracious Speech, it is our intention to consult before the end of this year on what we will do about micromobility. The noble Baroness knows the range of different sorts of regulations there are throughout Europe. We have shared that information with her, and indeed I hope with others in your Lordships’ House. If we have not, I am very happy to share it. There is a huge divergence of views about how to regulate these things, so we need to properly consult on them before we get there.
The noble Baroness, Lady Pidgeon, referred to the draft taxi and private hire Bill, which was in the gracious Speech. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to her for our collaboration to make the relevant part of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act serve the immediate purpose of better regulation of taxi and private hire out-of-area working. That really is not enough, so this draft Bill, which will need a lot of discussion because circumstances vary throughout the United Kingdom, is absolutely necessary.
I am tempted to respond to the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, on a couple of his points because, well, why not? He referred to the £2 fare cap, but what he did not say is that the previous Government instituted it but did not fund it much past the election date—
Lord McLoughlin (Con)
How has Andy Burnham managed to fund it, then, in Manchester alone?
Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)
The process by which bus franchising was established in Manchester was absolutely tortuous, although he was enabled to do it. The purpose of the bus services Bill is to make it easier to do, but the results are spectacularly good.
I have not been watching the clock. My time is up. I should say that my noble friends Lady Merron and Lady Taylor have listened carefully to the whole debate, as I have, and they will be as well placed as I am to take forward all the issues raised by noble Lords. The gracious Speech marks the next phase in our plan to deliver national renewal across housing, health and transport. This Government are putting better public services first. We have promised to do what these Bills set out and we will do that.