Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:58 pm on 27 September 2017.
Safety is an issue that the Secretary should be considering and he’s nodding, so he’s heard what you’ve just said; absolutely fair. The other issue, of course, is the funding dispute that’s currently going on with the Welsh Government. The Cabinet Secretary gave evidence this morning to the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee, and he showed remarkable restraint, and I think it’s subject to the fact that he’s having ongoing dialogue with the UK Treasury and I would expect nothing less from him. Nonetheless, I reserve the right to say the UK Government has let us down. In 2014, the transport Secretary in the UK Government wrote to the predecessor of the Cabinet Secretary to say the block grant would be unaffected and reasonable protection provided against the impact of regulatory reviews and track access charges. That promise was made to safeguard that. That was further made to the predecessor Committee to the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee in 2015—September 2015—an official from the Department of Transport made exactly the same promise and, therefore, the Cabinet Secretary was able to tell the Committee in April this year that we expected the block grant to be reasonably protected from the impact of track access charges. Something has changed; something has changed in the UK Government and we can’t work out what it is. The UK Government are now refusing to safeguard the block grant from those track access charges, which is threatening this rail franchise and the Government working hard to resolve it. I think it’s a good thing that that issue has been separated from the issue of the awarding of the contract, but this is something that must be resolved, and I can see that the Cabinet Secretary will work on that. If the Welsh Government is to effectively implement these recommendations in the report without being hamstrung financially by the UK Government, then we could see a transformation of rail services. And what I would say to Dai Lloyd is that I’m seeing a Welsh Government working hard to do that, in spite of difficulties that have been put in the way by the UK Government, and I urge all parties in this Chamber to get behind this report and get behind the Government in resolving this rail franchise.