Diolch, Lywydd. It’s a pleasure to move the motion to propose that the National Assembly for Wales supports the abolition of tolls on the Severn bridges following their return to the public sector.

The Severn tolls hold back the Welsh economy, discourage tourism and unnecessarily divide Wales from England. There is £90 million at least of direct cost that the tolls take in every year, and the Welsh Government has further estimated the cost of tolls to Wales as at least £107 million annually. We believe the costs of paying the highest UK toll are likely to be far higher when all lost opportunities and indirect effects are taken into account.

On 1 September 2015 I launched UKIP’s campaign for the Welsh Assembly with Nigel Farage at the M4 toll plaza, calling for the abolition of the tolls. Since then, other parties have moved our way. I hope today that the Assembly will for the first time agree to abolish the tolls. I believe this would helpful timing-wise to inform the public inquiry on the M4 relief road, as it may affect future traffic volumes on the M4, but also to inform UK Ministers that’s the position that this legislature takes. I’m concerned that, in recent evidence in Westminster, Andrew Jones, the responsible transport Minister, proposed introducing free-flow tolling technology. I don’t know—and perhaps the Minister will enlighten us later—what if any discussions, let alone agreement, there may have been with the Welsh Government in respect of this, but the UK Minister said that he expected it to be between three and four years from a decision until that tolling was operational. I would question whether UK Ministers should be taking decisions at that timescale, given the legislative basis, and the limited basis, through that, of their powers in this area.

I’d just like to address the issue of a maintenance toll, which is often brought up in this discussion. For 2015, the UK Minister confirmed that overall revenue from the toll was over £90 million. In various contexts, it’s been cited that maintenance might be £13 million or £15 million per year. But that figure is for the whole operational costs of the bridge, and, yes, that consists of maintenance as well as the costs of actually collecting the toll. The inspection and maintenance element of that, I think the £13.3 million for 2015, is only £6 million. So, as a proportion of the over £90 million brought in, it is a small proportion. If applied as a ratio to the current charge of £6.60 for a car, it would equate to 44p.

Given the size of that, I don’t think we should allow our debate to be skewed by what pays for maintenance in the future, because of the small proportion of the overall size. Actually, I think abolishing that toll would have such a positive impact in the message it sends about Wales being open for business, Wales being welcoming of people who come here without having that basic tax on people simply for crossing the Severn bridges.

I’d like to say a little about the legislative basis for the current tolling. I also think it’s very, very important to realise that the Severn Bridges Act 1992—. I’ve heard some people say that the tolls can go on until 2027, and there is a backstop of 35 years from the 1992 commencement date, but it’s either that or when a certain amount of money has been raised. I think there’s broad familiarity with the revenue requirement for the private concession—once that reaches £1.029 billion at 1989 prices that therefore comes back to the public sector, perhaps as early as October next year.

But the Secretary of State and the UK Government don’t have further authority to just toll it as much as they want right the way up to that 2027 date. It provides at section 7 for the early end of tolling by the Secretary of State, and it says there that when the funding requirement is met, no tolls should be levied after that day. Now, that funding requirement includes the revenue requirement we’ve discussed and a number of other costs listed in a Schedule to the 1992 Act, the largest of which is £63 million, which is stated to have been a debt in respect of the first Severn bridge.

The Minister has given further estimates of that £63 million, and the Minister has given further estimates at a UK level taking the overall cost up to £88 million above the revenue requirement at which they come back into the public sector. We would dispute whether those costs should be paid or whether tolling should continue to fund them, not least because the Exchequer got a £150 million-plus windfall gain from applying value added tax, having first promised not to. Second, we look at, say, the Humber bridge, where the UK Government simply wrote off £150 million on an equivalent basis in 2011. Why would they not also do that for the Severn tolls and, therefore, allow for their abolition as soon as they come back to the public sector, potentially as early as autumn next year?

If they don’t do that, though, it is very important to recognise that the Severn Bridges Act only gives them limited authority for further tolling. Even with a half toll, I would question whether that £88 million would justify a toll going on for more than, say, another 18 months or so after they return to the public sector, which, at most, would take us up to mid-2019. I simply question the legal basis for the UK Government continuing to impose a toll after that period, because they would have no power, at least on my understanding and reading of it, under the Severn Bridges Act 1992.

There is the Transport Act 2000, which refers, at section 167, that

‘A trunk road charging scheme may only be made—

‘(a) by the Secretary of State in respect of roads for which he is the traffic authority, or

‘(b) by the National Assembly for Wales in respect of roads for which it is the traffic authority.’

It goes on, at section 168, to consider the prospect of both charging authorities acting jointly, one surmises with reference to the Severn bridges. That, of course, was also the basis of the Silk commission, which concluded that powers for the Severn bridges should remain for resolution by the UK and Welsh Governments together in agreement. And then, again, we have, in the St David’s Day agreement, that the UK Government will work with the Welsh Government to determine the long-term future of the crossings. That position is supported by the Government of Wales Act 2006, which says, in terms of conferred powers, in field 10, highways and transport, matter 10.1:

‘the making, operation and enforcement of schemes for imposing charges…on Welsh trunk roads’ and also the application, then, of those charges. When we then look at exceptions, there is an exception for traffic regulation on special roads, and that includes motorways, but there’s then an exception to the exception, which reads:

‘apart from regulation relating to matter 10.1.’

So, that means that the motorway is not excluded from the conferred powers. I give way.