Oral Answers to Questions

Peter Heaton-Jones Excerpts

Thursday 11th October 2018 Commons Chamber

[Joseph Johnson]

We will of course be monitoring the autumn timetables across the country. I am glad to see that Southeastern’s performance has been good in recent months: I believe that the current public performance measure is 94%.

[Peter Heaton-Jones (North Devon) (Con)]

Will the Minister update me on the work that he is doing with Devon County Council to ensure that there is a prompt start to the improvement works on the north Devon link road?

[Jesse Norman]

As my hon. Friend will know, the council is carrying out preparatory work on the road. We have been delighted to offer more than £80 million of funding under our large local majors scheme. We would like the work to begin in 2020, but we rely very much on the extra commitment that the council is making to ensure that the different aspects work.

Oral Answers to Questions

Peter Heaton-Jones Excerpts

Thursday 24th May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Jesse Norman]

The answer to that question, as the hon. Lady will know, is that there is no correlation between having targets at the national level and the success of a road safety strategy. Many countries that do not have targets have had thoroughly successful road safety strategies. There are many parts of our public realm in which targets can be set by the authorities involved, and we welcome them when they are set.

[Peter Heaton-Jones (North Devon) (Con)]

A week ago today, the Government announced funding of £83 million for improvements to the north Devon link road. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear!”] Indeed—hear, hear. I thank the Minister for that decision. Will he join me in congratulating Devon County Council on the brilliant bid that has got this funding?

[Chris Grayling]

I am really grateful to Devon County Council for the work it has done. I am also very grateful to my hon. Friend for the arguments that he has brought forward about why this should be a priority. It is a sign of this Government’s commitment to the south-west of this country, where we are delivering actual projects that are really essential to local infrastructure and that are long, long overdue.

Rail Update

Peter Heaton-Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 29th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

Absolutely. The key point about the trans-Pennine upgrade is that we have already electrified it from Manchester to Liverpool. That bit of the project has been done. The next bit is from Manchester to Leeds to York. I have said that that will be a £3 million programme. It is the next big rail investment project. I am expecting Network Rail’s detailed proposals shortly. It will be the next big project we go ahead with and will make a big difference to the north.

[Peter Heaton-Jones (North Devon) (Con)]

I warmly welcome the announcement today of a consultation on the great western franchise and the improvements it will bring to passenger services in Devon and beyond, but may I seek my right hon. Friend’s reassurance that there will be a focus in that process on the one rail service that serves my constituency—that between Exeter and Barnstaple? It is not just a quaint tourist line used in August; it is a vital part of north Devon’s economic infrastructure.

[Chris Grayling]

It certainly is, and I do not want that service to be diminished in any way. My hon. Friend will be interested to know that one of the routes on which we intend to start passenger services again—and we are actively engaged in that work—is the line from Okehampton to Exeter. I think that has the potential to ease congestion at Exeter, and to provide a better commuter route.

Road Infrastructure

Peter Heaton-Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 5th July 2017 Westminster Hall

[Peter Heaton-Jones (North Devon) (Con)]

I, too, congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bexhill and Battle (Huw Merriman) on securing this debate on today of all days. Who would have thought it?

I shall not detain hon. Members for too long. No doubt they will show no surprise at all that I will spend three minutes unashamedly banging on about the North Devon link road. In the extraordinarily unlikely circumstance that anyone here does not understand the vital importance of the North Devon link road, let me give Members the 20-second lesson. It is the A361 between Tiverton and Barnstaple and onwards to the beautiful North Devon coastline. It links our part of the world with the M5 and the rest of the country. However, we do not see it as North Devon’s only link to the outside world; we see it as the outside world’s only opportunity to visit us.

We therefore need real investment in the North Devon link road. We must ensure that it is fit for purpose. At the moment, it is not. It is single carriageway for about 85% of the distance between Tiverton and Barnstaple—two towns some 30 miles apart. Where it is not single carriageway, it has short stretches of overtaking lanes that merge quickly into the main carriageway with little warning. That leads to risk taking, speeding, dangerous overtaking and, sadly, a high incidence of accidents in which people are killed or seriously injured. Sadly, two summers ago, three people were killed on the link road just a mile or so from my home in North Devon.

We need to change that, but not just because we need holidaymakers to be able to get to North Devon more quickly in August. We need real investment in the North Devon link road because it currently hampers economic investment in our area, which has so much to offer as far as a growing economy is concerned.

We have made real progress. Devon County Council is doing absolutely fantastic work, and we have secured £1.5 million from the Government to carry out detailed planning work, including putting together a comprehensive business case. We are currently in the third phase of a public consultation, with a series of exhibitions—I was at one in South Molton myself less than a fortnight ago—that show what could be done to improve the road. We have a plan. We are, to use the awful phrase, shovel ready. We now need the money. I am not the first and I am sure I will not be the last to say to this Minister—this excellent Minister, this wise Minister, this almost noble Minister, whom it is a pleasure to see here—“Please look at this scheme, because you will get so much bang for your buck if you invest in it.”

Normally, people would not find a cigarette paper—perhaps these days we should say an e-cigarette paper—between me and my good friend the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle, but it rather suits our purposes in North Devon that it seems that the new £1 billion roads fund announced today will be targeted at roads that were de-trunked and are purely the responsibility of local authorities. That is exactly the situation in which we find ourselves in North Devon. Why? Because a Labour Government chose to de-trunk the A361. That happened under a Labour Government’s watch and, I have to say, under the watch of a Liberal Democrat MP in North Devon. [Interruption.] Absolutely. That should not have happened, but it did happen, and it hampered investment in this road. I am however pleased to say that, if The Times is to believed—of course it is; it is The Times—we can see the way out of this and, through the new fund being announced today, we can get some real investment in the North Devon link road.

Let me look wider across the south-west, because it is no good people being able to get to North Devon if they cannot get beyond there to the rest of the south-west. Last week, I was delighted to see media reports of a new £6.1 billion programme to open up road access to the south-west. In particular and for so long, many colleagues in the south-west have been asking for a proper dual carriageway linking the M3 with the M5. Too many bits of the A303 and A358 are single carriageway and not fit for purpose. The Government have announced real investment, which will see a major change in that, and I warmly welcome it.

I say to the Roads Minister that we will be knocking on his door. The Government have invested £1.5 million in ensuring that we are shovel ready for this vital scheme to improve the North Devon link road. The message that needs to go out today is, “Come to North Devon. Come and do business in North Devon. Come and spend your tourist pound in North Devon, and come and live in North Devon and contribute to the local economy.” I want to be able to say, “You can do all those things and get there safely, sustainably and efficiently, thanks to investment by this Conservative Government.”

[Several hon. Members rose—]

Merchant Shipping (Homosexual Conduct) Bill

Peter Heaton-Jones Excerpts

2nd reading: House of Commons
Friday 20th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Peter Heaton-Jones (North Devon) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley (Philip Davies) and I, too, congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury (John Glen) on securing this incredibly important debate and on being successful in the private Member’s Bill ballot. If I understood his comments and those of colleagues correctly, it looks like this is the second time that he has piloted a private Member’s Bill on to the statute book.

[John Glen]

Not yet.

[Peter Heaton-Jones]

No; we will not count our chickens, but I hope that in a few weeks or months it will be the case. He is truly becoming a legislative leviathan, and I congratulate him on it.

My hon. Friend follows in a long line of Back Benchers who have piloted important legislative developments in the arena of social policy through the House, and I welcome his addition to this important historical trend. I want to say, in complete support of my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley, how struck I was by the speech made by my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes South (Iain Stewart). His comments, the way he framed them, and his personal testimony express better than any legal language could why we need to do this today. It is a personal matter for so many people and it has been swept under the carpet for so long. Even if this is a tidying-up exercise, if I can use that phrase, even if it is purely a symbolic change to make sure that different bits of our legislation do not give the wrong message, that sort of personal testimony is why it is so vital that we make it. I echo my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley in saying that, if anyone outside this place reads just one speech in today’s debate, it should be that of my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes South.

As has been said, the change that the Bill proposes is largely a symbolic one, but it is still vital. The Bill seeks to rectify an anachronism in our current legislation, which is the law as it applies to merchant ships. The Bill would repeal certain aspects of sections 146 and 147 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which suggest that it would be lawful to dismiss a seafarer for a homosexual act. Those sections repealed in England, Wales and Scotland and revoked in Northern Ireland laws that criminalised homosexual acts in the armed forces and aboard merchant ships. However, the two particular aspects of those sections that my hon. Friend’s Bill seeks to address today still maintain that homosexual acts could provide grounds for discharging a member of Her Majesty’s armed forces or dismissing a member of the crew of a UK merchant ship. The Armed Forces Act 2016 repealed those parts of that previous Act as they maintain their hold over the Navy—Her Majesty’s armed forces—but they left in place the aspects relating to merchant ships. As such, we still have on the statute book in this country legislation that says:

“Nothing contained in this section shall prevent a homosexual act from constituting a ground for dismissing a member of the crew of a United Kingdom merchant ship from that ship.”

I am afraid that that wording on the statute book—even though it has been superseded, I am so pleased to say, by the Equality Act 2010—gives rise to a perception that is the last thing we want as a country that has moved so far to equalise the rights of the LGBT community. That is why, as symbolic as it may be, the change that the Bill seeks to introduce is so important.

Merchant ships are in the unusual position of being both workplaces and residences, as my hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton), who has a habit of appearing back in her place just as she is being referred to—it is very clever; it is a skill that all Members should develop—pointed out correctly in an intervention, and that is partly why we are in the position that we are in. Many owners of merchant ships are able—because they are the outright owners of a residence as well as a workplace—to introduce and enforce rules and regulations on those vessels, as anyone in their own home can do for a visitor. They are able to ban alcohol, or smoking even by seamen in their own cabins while off duty. They can impose stringent restrictions on many other activities on health and safety grounds or merely because they feel that it is the right thing in their own residence. The danger is that, with this historical language on the statute books, that could be extended, and because merchant ships are viewed as both a residence and a workplace, one fears that some merchant ship owners could extend those powers to homosexual acts, which would be inappropriate.

[Wendy Morton]

Perhaps I should start by saying that I am not an apparition; this is Wendy Morton, the Member of Parliament for Aldridge-Brownhills. If anyone wants to learn the techniques of bobbing in and out of the Chamber, they should remember that it is always done with the permission of the Chair.

It is almost 50 years since the Sexual Offences Act 1967, and things have moved on a great deal. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is high time—or high tide almost—that the legislation was changed and that the anomaly regarding residences and workplaces was dealt with?

--- Later in debate ---

[Peter Heaton-Jones]

I absolutely agree. Let me say for the record that I was not for one moment seeking to suggest that my hon. Friend was doing anything improper or being discourteous to the House in her jiggery-pokery.

As we have said, the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 exempts merchant ships from certain laws. In UK statute, we have text that explicitly permits the firing of an individual and the prohibiting of same-sex sexual conduct—it is still there on the statute book, even though it has been superseded by subsequent legislation. As right hon. and hon. Members have said, that should not have been legislated for in the first place. I am really glad that my hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury is using this opportunity to remove that from the statute book. It is absolutely the right thing to do.

The Bill’s implications are largely symbolic because, as has been mentioned, the Equality Act 2010—a very welcome piece of legislation—makes it absolutely clear that employers cannot fire or dismiss an individual employee because of their sexuality. That is, of course, welcome. None the less, it remains in my view incredibly important that we tidy up the statute book to remove that historical anachronism once and for all, even though it has been superseded. We need to ensure that we send a very clear message about the direction that we are taking, which is why the Bill, symbolic as it is, is still incredibly important.

There have been many pieces of legislation over the years, symbolic and otherwise, that have had tangible and very welcome implications for the lives of our LGBT citizens. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, which the Bill amends, was only passed in 1994, but since then we have taken so many positive steps: the equalisation of the age of consent, the repeal of section 28, as has been mentioned, and the overturning of the ban on gay people serving in the military. We have also seen civil partnerships, protections against discrimination in many areas of people’s lives, adoption rights and—championed by the previous Prime Minister, David Cameron—the introduction of same-sex marriage, which I wholeheartedly supported.

It was only a matter of time before Oscar Wilde’s name appeared in this debate; he once remarked that, yes,

“we shall win, but the road is long, and…with monstrous martyrdoms.”

He was right. The road for our LGBT citizens has been too long, and too many people have suffered for too long. I am sure Oscar Wilde would be proud of the pace at which change is now coming. The list of changes that I mentioned, which have all really come in the last 15 or 20 years, have been significant and extremely welcome. My hon. Friend’s Bill continues that very welcome process. It purges the statute book of, frankly, pernicious clauses in historical and outdated legislation. That is vital.

Progress is being made, but we still have much to do. It is a source of regret that discrimination still exists in our society, despite the best efforts of legislators in this place over the years to try to put that right. There is still much work to be done. Fears still exist among the LGBT community that there is still not 100% protection. It is indeed very difficult for any Government to provide such protection, because so much of this comes down to individual attitudes and behaviours. We as a society still have a great deal of work to do to try to ensure that people at quite a young age are educated and given the maturity to be able to deal with issues that are of such importance to our LGBT community. Sadly, there are still gaps in that understanding.

The Bill seeks to prevent dismissal on the basis of sexual orientation, which is welcome. However, one in five lesbian, gay and bisexual employees across all workplaces still say, according to the latest surveys that I have seen, that they have experienced bullying in the workplace in the last five years—one in five of the LGBT community! That needs to change. My hon. Friend’s Bill sends out the very clear message that here is yet another workplace in which we insist that the change is put in binding legislation.

Another figure worth quoting is that one in eight LGBT people have said that they would not be confident in reporting homophobic bullying in the workplace. Homophobic bullying in any workplace needs to be utterly condemned, but the fact that so many people who may be its victims do not feel comfortable in reporting it, or that the mechanism exists for them to report it, is simply something that we have to change. I echo earlier comments: I was pleased to see this week that, if I remember the statistics properly, Parliament is now among the top 30 best employers in the country for members of the LGBT community. That is something that we, and particularly the staff of the House, should be extraordinarily proud of.

We are told that even today 26%—more than a quarter—of LGBT workers are not open with their colleagues or managers about their sexual orientation; that echoes the comments that my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes South made about how he felt unable to be open about his sexuality during his early career. That feeds into the comments I was making earlier. We have to change perceptions—hearts and minds—and the Bill helps to send that message loud and clear. The Bill may be largely symbolic, but the fact that we are having this debate and are determined—I hope—to make this symbolic change will send a clear signal that we will not allow any further discrimination. If debates in this place are what it takes to change hearts and minds, then let us have them and make sure that changes, even if only symbolic, are made to our statutes.

It is all well and good tackling the relationship between the employer and employees—that, of course, has important material implications for LGBT citizens and workers—but changing hearts and minds must be the main aim. Symbolic Bills such as this, although limited in their legislative effect, are important, but only with a change in opinions will individuals such as those who feel they have to hide their real identities in the workplace feel confident enough to be open and out. Until that day, we cannot say that we truly have an equal society for our LGBT citizens, either in or out of the world of work.

The Bill relates specifically to the rights of LGBT employees on merchant ships, which by their very nature operate all over the world. We do not want an individual to be free from discrimination on board the ship only to face potential discrimination when they disembark on a foreign shore. We must continue to fight for the rights of LGBT citizens and workers in other countries.

Today, events across the Atlantic may knock this fine debate off the top of the news bulletins, surprising as that may seem; as a former journalist, I have a hunch that it will not lead the six o’clock news tonight, but let us do our best. On the day when President Obama leaves office in America, let us pay tribute to his work in advancing LGBT rights in the USA. The job is not finished by any means: in many states, someone can still be denied public services or dismissed from their job simply for being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. However, President Obama leaves office after eight years with the LGBT community in the States far more protected than it has ever been. Let us hope that nothing is done over the next four or eight years to unwind any of that good work.

The Bill seeks to tidy up legislation in the UK so that we in this country can, hopefully, say the same sort of thing about ourselves as we can say about President Obama on the day he leaves office: that a clear signal has been given that we will not tolerate discrimination against the LGBT community—on merchant ships or in any other workplace, or in society and the country as a whole.

Reference has been made to the European Union. Mr Deputy Speaker said earlier that we should not go down that particular debating cul-de-sac, so I shall not do so for too long. I simply say that, as we leave the European Union, which we will do, we must ensure that the progress that many of the nations in it have made continues. However, we must be aware that, in some of our European neighbours, particularly in eastern Europe, there is more to do on understanding, on educating the citizenry and on attitudes towards LGBT communities.

It is absolutely the case that people in employment have a right to be free from discrimination because of their sexuality, and that is the case in any nation. That is as important to a young eastern European who, growing up, aspires to work on a merchant ship as it is to a young person in any other country. As we leave the European Union, we must keep it in mind that some of our former European Union partners—we will still be in Europe, if not in the European Union—still have a little way to go. We must therefore continue to advocate our values in Europe, and the Bill from my hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury goes a long way towards achieving that and sending that very clear message, which is another reason why I welcome it.

We must also use our position in the Commonwealth to push for even more fundamental rights for LGBT people. In far too many Commonwealth nations, regrettably, members of the LGBT community still have to hide their identities and still have to lead lives where they pretend to be somebody they are not. Outside our family of Commonwealth nations, in countries across the globe, it is a disgrace that there are still places where people are criminalised simply because of whom they love. Thank goodness, the UK is no longer one such country, and the Bill helps to absolutely underline that fact, which is why I welcome it.

I have just a final thought on the wider implications of the discussion we are having today, reflecting the international flavour of some of the points I seek to make. It is often said that the UK ought to have a more “muscular” international development policy and that we should maybe even withdraw, or threaten to withdraw, funding from nations where there is discrimination against LGBT people and whose Governments are not, in our estimation, addressing that speedily enough. In my view, that would not be the solution; the solution is to double down and to make absolutely clear what the UK’s view is.

The key to ending discrimination is influence and education. Our international aid budget has an important role to play in educating countries with some of the poorest people in the world, and changing the attitudes of young people through that education is vital. It is important to do that internationally and in the UK as well, and my hon. Friend’s Bill gives an incredibly powerful and important sign to young people in this country that the UK is leading the way. It is important to send that message in this country, and indeed across the globe, which is why I am so pleased to support the Bill today.

In conclusion, we have come a long way in the UK. We are almost there, but we are not all of the way there yet. There still exists on our statute books this historical anachronism, which seems to suggest that we will allow, or at the very least turn a blind eye to, discrimination against gay people serving in the merchant navy. I am delighted that my hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury has secured this debate, and he will hopefully secure the passage of the Bill, to ensure that we no longer have these pernicious measures on our statute books. The Bill does nothing less than advance the cause of equality in our country. For that reason I wholeheartedly welcome it, and I look forward, if it comes to it, to supporting it in a Division.

Road Routes to the South-West

Peter Heaton-Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 1st March 2016 Westminster Hall

[Peter Heaton-Jones (North Devon) (Con)]

I congratulate my parliamentary neighbour and hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Neil Parish) on securing this debate. I will take three minutes to bang on unashamedly about the North Devon link road. It is a pleasure to be part of this cohort of south-west Conservative MPs. We all speak with one voice—

[Simon Hoare]

Where’s Exeter?

[Peter Heaton-Jones]

As my hon. Friend exclaims with some reason, where is the right hon. Member for Exeter (Mr Bradshaw)? We are united on the vital need for the south-west to secure these major road improvements. The overriding reason is that we need that investment to secure the economic future of our region. It is not about getting tourists there more quickly on a Saturday afternoon in August; it is about the vital economic future of the whole south-west.

Within that framework, the north Devon link road is vital. The A361 connects North Devon with the M5. It is our only viable link south and east to the rest of the country. We do not see it as North Devon’s only link to the outside world; we see it as the outside world’s only opportunity to visit us. We must ensure that it is fit for purpose, because at the moment it is not. It is a single carriageway for about 85% of the distance between Tiverton and Barnstaple, some 30 miles apart. Where it is not, it has short overtaking lanes that merge quickly into the main carriageway with little warning. That leads to risk-taking, speeding and, sadly, a high incidence of accidents in which people are killed and seriously injured, on my doorstep. It is hampering economic investment and harming the vital tourist industry. I want to be positive. I do not want to put people off: “Come to North Devon; it is a great place to visit and do business. You will get there eventually.” I want to change the “eventually”.

I have been campaigning for major improvements since well before my election to this place. I was delighted when my right hon. Friend the Chancellor came and made certain commitments; I say to the Minister that this is the time to deliver on them. Devon County Council is doing fantastic work, thanks to the £1.5 million that the Chancellor has given us to carry out detailed planning work, including putting together a comprehensive business case. I met Devon County Council three hours ago here, and I ensured that we are driving the matter forward so we can make a bid to the local majors fund, a nearly £500 million pot created by the Chancellor.

It is part of the wider picture. The North Devon link road is vital, but it is no good if we cannot get people to the south-west to start with. That is why the A303, the A30 and the A358, championed by my hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Honiton, are vital. They are the backbone of the region’s infrastructure. The North Devon link road is one of the vital arteries connecting it to the rest of the world. I say to the Minister that I know the Government are listening; I am not complaining that they are not. I am merely asking that we now deliver what we promised. Let us put boots on the ground and diggers on the tarmac, and let us have a yellow army of road workers to complement the blue army of Conservative MPs in the south-west.

Great Western Railway Routes

Peter Heaton-Jones Excerpts

Monday 8th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Peter Heaton-Jones (North Devon) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Torbay (Kevin Foster) on securing this important debate.

The hon. Member for Ogmore (Huw Irranca-Davies) said he might be departing for pastures new. As he kindly namechecked me, may I say what a pleasure it has been to serve under his chairmanship of the Environmental Audit Committee? It has been my first experience of a Select Committee, and it has been extremely fruitful. We will miss you—I mean, we will miss the hon. Gentleman. I apologise. Ooh, I think I’ve got away with it.

Like many Members on both sides of the House, I am a regular user of the Great Western main line. I travelled up this morning. As others have said, the journey was considerably delayed, but I pay tribute to the GWR train staff, who always kept us well informed and advised. On such days, they operate in extremely difficult conditions. It can only be a challenge to deal with a lot of stroppy passengers who want to know why they are an hour late, but they performed in an exemplary fashion this morning and kept us all advised. Although we got into Paddington an hour late, that was fine.

As mentioned, faster broadband would be gratefully received. The train is a valuable opportunity to work—I had an unexpected extra hour this morning—but although the broadband works after a fashion, it is, like the curate’s egg, slightly patchy. Like the right hon. Member for Exeter (Mr Bradshaw), I choose to travel in the quiet carriage, but never has anything been so misnamed. It is certainly not always quiet. The train is a vital place of work for people on their journey from the south-west to London and elsewhere.

[Mr Bradshaw]

This has been suggested to me once or twice before. In my experience, if one politely asks somebody making a noise in the quiet carriage to desist or move, they do so. It is a great example of British self-policing. I recommend that the hon. Gentleman try it, if he has not already done so.

[Peter Heaton-Jones]

I am a shrinking violent and would never presume to do such a thing, but I take the right hon. Gentleman’s point.

The vital nature of this main rail link for the south-west—our major rail artery—has to be stressed again and again, but it is extraordinarily important for another reason. As others have said, not only is it a fragile link, but it complements what is, by any definition, a fragile series of road links to the south-west. On the M5 or the A303, you pays your money and you takes your choice. There are times when both are unhelpful to the travelling public. For that reason and many others, it is vital that the south-west line is resilient, as many Members on both sides of the House have said.

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

As well as resilience, do we not need to get the network running smarter? For example, a great train robbery takes place every day when my constituents are robbed of 15 minutes of their lives because the train from London leaves the main line and parks in Gloucester, where the driver gets out from one end of the train and walks to the other, before the train rejoins the main line and continues to Cheltenham.

[Peter Heaton-Jones]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. I am not aware of the particular jiggery-pokery he mentions, but it sounds like an extraordinary bit of choreography.

I have mentioned the difficulty with transport links as a whole. That is why the resilience of the south-west main line is vital. I also want to talk about the spider’s web, as others have called it. We need to ensure a good and widespread rail service across the south-west. It needs not just a spine, but ribs coming off it—to stretch the analogy to breaking point.

I am bound also to mention the vital rail link in north Devon connecting Exeter with Barnstaple. Over the years, it has survived the Beeching cuts and many other problems, including flooding and underuse, and now it has turned a corner. The number of passengers using it is growing almost exponentially. It used to be used primarily in the summer months. Indeed, at some points, it is still signposted with signs of the brown tourist variety, which rather gives the impression of its being a quaint Puffing Billy line, which it is not. It is a vital artery, and if we can improve it, we will improve the economic vitality of north Devon.

The fantastic work of the Tarka Rail Association in promoting and operating the line has helped to drive its increased use, so I was delighted when, just three weeks ago, I arranged for the chairman and me to meet my hon. Friend the rail Minister. We had an extremely productive hour-long meeting at which we discussed the importance of the north Devon main line, as we are hoping to rechristen it. I hope that my hon. Friend will refer to that in her comments. Having these ribs off the spine are absolutely vital if we are to ensure that we have a rail service that is truly of use to the maximum number of people in the south-west. It is of particular importance to north Devon because of tourism.

[Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con)]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way. I feel like an intruder in this debate, as I do not represent a south-west constituency. However, I was at Exeter university and I regularly visit north Devon. I absolutely concur with his point about the Barnstable line. A key thing that is needed is enhanced rolling stock. Very often what is in use is a single carriage train, which is woefully inadequate. I hope that when the Great Western franchise comes up in a few years’ time, proper consideration will be given to procuring better rolling stock for that line.

[Peter Heaton-Jones]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. I am delighted to welcome him to beautiful north Devon. The rolling stock is an essential matter, as it has been left to decay to the point that it is only just fit for purpose. I have held a significant number of meetings with the operators, GWR, Network Rail and the Tarka Rail Association and we have discussed at length the importance of acquiring significant new rolling stock. I am delighted to say that we now appear to have reached a position where there will be a “cascade” of rolling stock. I would rather not use the phrase “cast-off” that was previously used, because I want to strike a more positive note. We will have a cascade of—almost—21st century rolling stock coming towards us for that line.

[Huw Irranca-Davies]

May I take this opportunity to stress the importance of access for wheelchair users? My friend Simon Green from the Bridgend Coalition for Disabled People stresses that, very often, in railway carriages there is space for only one wheelchair, so two people travelling together have to be split up. It would be great if we looked at the possibility of different variations in the new rolling stock.

[Peter Heaton-Jones]

The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. I have travelled on the north Devon line between Barnstable and Exeter, and, quite often, there is no room at all for a single wheelchair user, which is why we need to get this new rolling stock cascaded to us as soon as possible.

Let me turn away from the specifics of the north Devon line to the Great Western main line, which is a vital artery for the south-west. We have talked a lot about the resilience of the line. We absolutely rely on that single rail line to provide us with a transport artery to the south-west. When incidents occur, such as the one in Dawlish, the effects are devastating. Even though people who come to north Devon often jump off the line well before Dawlish—like me, they usually get off at Tiverton Parkway—the fact is that when we have the sort of incident that happened at Dawlish, the whole of the south-west and all the constituencies represented by Members here are affected. We need to ensure that we have the resilience of that line sewn up for the future, which means addressing the difficulties at Dawlish. The right hon. Member for Exeter made the point that the cliffs on one side of the line are just as much a problem as the coast, on the other side of the line. I have seen for myself that that is a problem. We also need to consider this second line—the Okehampton route—that will start to open up a vital northern corridor. I have an interest in such a route, as I represent north Devon.

The flooding issue is also of significance. As I came up on the train this morning, I saw how close the line was to the Somerset levels. Then there is the electrification issue. I absolutely agree with Members from all parts of the House that we need to speed up the process of electrification of the line. I am delighted that it is planned to go through to south Wales, but we need to ensure that we get it down to the south-west.

I add a note of concern here: if we get no significant movement on this until control period 6—in other words starting in 2019—we will be pushed back to the end of the queue. I hope that the Minister can give us some positive news in this regard. In particular, I hope that she can provide us with some reassurance on these two feasibility studies into the resilience and the electrification of the line, which have been mentioned a few times already. Without going into all the do’s and don’ts of who said what, of where the money was coming from, and of whether it was cut from point A or from point B, the fact is that we need a relatively small amount of money to undertake those two vital reports, and they really need to be done. I hope that, when the Minister gets to her feet at the end of the debate, she will have some positive news for us. One cannot stress too much how important it is to have those two studies done.

Let me briefly mention the Peninsula Rail Task Force and the excellent work it has done. Its 20-year plan certainly bears reading and taking seriously, because it has a vision for the rail line that we in the south-west deserve.

As has been mentioned, the Prime Minister and the Chancellor came down to the south-west on a number of occasions. They came to my constituency—to Saunton in the case of the Chancellor—and announcements and promises were made and ambitions mentioned. They talked about investment for the south-west rail line. I feel sure that, when the rail Minister gets to her feet, she will be able to reassure us that those promises will be delivered. It is vital for all of us in north Devon and the wider south-west that we have a resilient, fast and efficient rail service.