Manufacturing: Digital Technology

Lord Berkeley Excerpts

Thursday 2nd November 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, I can only say how much I agree with the noble Lord. We have to look at what digitalisation offers to us while also bearing in mind what the noble Lord, Lord West, said about threats. That is why we want to make the right response. I note what has been said.

[Lord Berkeley (Lab)]

My Lords, one of the real benefits of digitalisation is on the railways. As the Secretary of State recently said, we can get many more trains on the line more safely with digital signalling. The Minister’s predecessor will have recently received a report from the railways on digitalisation. Will he say something about how the finances for the railways will change so that there is enough investment in both the tracks and the cabs and locomotives, including freight, to make sure this happens quickly and safely? I declare an interest as chairman of the Rail Freight Group.

[Lord Henley]

I am grateful to the noble Lord for mentioning the railways. I will be heading back north again on the west coast main line. I know quite how good that is at the moment, but I have also been told just how much it could be improved with digitalisation of the signalling and what improvements we can see on that front. I look forward to improvements there over coming years. The noble Lord asked about finances for the railways. He would not expect me to make any response at this stage. I hope he will be patient and wait for what comes out of the industrial strategy later this month.