Speeches by Smith.

“You have not actually answered my question. My question was, what are you going to do to incentivise performance along the lines of that? It is great to have that ambition—I hear that and it is laudable—but in the process of getting from A to B, from where we are now to this utopia of perfect performance, what will hap…”

“Can you set out the expected development, operating and ongoing upgrade costs of the GBR retail app and website, which you are suggesting are going to happen and which are set out in the Bill? How will the Department demonstrate that this represents good value for money for taxpayers, particularly given that high-quali…”

“You are right—there is no incentive at the moment, because actually, it is not the train companies that pay it, but Government. Forgive me on that point, but in terms of how you would use it to drive performance, now that it is the Government delivering the railway service and having to pay out delay repay, is it going…”

“At the moment, we have the delay repay system in place. If a particular train company is not delivering its passengers to where they need to be at the right time, it has to give money back. I have certainly benefited from that in the past, in getting to where I live. What are you going to do about incentives to improve…”

“Will it essentially be a rebadging of the National Rail app? There is already a website where you can buy tickets at a national level through the National Rail app.”

“So freight will still be prioritised?”

“It would be useful to have some more correspondence on that.”

“Do you think that it is the right approach to have a memorandum of understanding—I think you have kind of covered that already—and are you confident that it will cover all the arrangements it needs to?”

“Finally on that, following the cancellation of the Avanti services in Wales, what discussions have you had with the UK Government about GBR reinstating some of these services once it is back in public ownership?”

“Do you think that more detail should be given on how that consultation would take place, or are you comfortable, given your experience, that what is there is okay?”

“You say that you think it is good to have that statutory underpinning. However, there is the opportunity to put some of what would be included in a memorandum of understanding into primary legislation rather than having it in a separate document. Do you think that that would benefit the relationship and insulate from e…”

“That is useful.”

“Can you foresee instances where the directions that the Scottish Ministers give conflict with the equivalent directions from the Secretary of State? Given your experience, how do you suggest that that could be mitigated?”

“There is quite a lot for this Committee, and those people on the Bill Committee, to be minded of to understand the detail of what this work will actually look like, isn’t there?”

“You have discussed Transport for Wales a little bit, which is obviously what you are here to represent. In a Welsh network largely owned by GBR, which is where the Bill will take us, and on which some GBR services will run, what risks do you feel there are to Transport for Wales’s ability to run its services effectivel…”

“You have discussed Transport for Wales a little bit, which is obviously what you are here to represent. In a Welsh network largely owned by GBR, which is where the Bill will take us, and on which some GBR services will run, what risks do you feel there are to Transport for Wales’s ability to run its services effectivel…”

“There is quite a lot for this Committee, and those people on the Bill Committee, to be minded of to understand the detail of what this work will actually look like, isn’t there?”

“Clause 80 of the Bill puts a duty on GBR to consult with Scottish Ministers if it appears that a decision would “significantly affect the interests of Scotland’s economy or of persons living in, working in or visiting Scotland.” Do you think “significantly affect” is the right test?”

“We have covered bits of my questions already, so I am going to pick out bits that we have not, and then possibly throw in something else. To start, given the different devolution settlements between Scotland and Wales, do you have concerns that Scotland will get better outcomes than Wales under the Bill?”

“Will the Wales and Border business unit have the detail of how it works in that MOU, or is that a separate thing that we need to be mindful of in the workings of that unit?”