Speeches by Aquarone.

“But the Secretary of State does not want to write an enforcement notice about a broken lift. Do we not need some way of getting this stuff routinely prioritised by network managers?”

“I respectfully disagree. With the parking enforcement officers in my constituency who issue fines and penalties for drivers—which is very much at the lower end of the spectrum—there seems to be no real conflict with the judicial system or anybody else in the middle. Do we not need some form of practical system that can…”

“But that does not say, “Do this or else”, does it? It does not say, “You must do this now or there will be immediate consequences.””

“Transport for All has suggested that the passenger watchdog itself should have powers to issue enforcement notices when there is a breach of an accessibility provision. What do you think the pros and cons of that would be?”

“Could I gently suggest that it might be more equivalent to the enforcement powers that civil officers have? For instance, traffic enforcement officers have a notice that requires something to be done, or a penalty to be paid. That is quite different from the judgment made at the end of an investigation. Is there not a …”

“On the same topic, the way this Budget was handled has undermined public confidence in North Norfolk in many ways, few more so than the fact it produced radio silence on our long-pledged dental school at the University of East Anglia. Does the Minister agree that if the Treasury had spent a little less time on its fisc…”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“Schools are not only at the heart of village communities but make living in rural villages in North Norfolk viable for young families. Without village schools, working-age parents simply cannot live in these areas and will leave for towns and cities, but the current funding formula does not recognise the importance of …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stuart. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Horsham (John Milne) on securing a debate on this vital issue. The fact that I previously secured a debate in this place on flooding in Norfolk and our problems with too much water, and now I am complaining about the…”

“My hon. Friend and I both represent rural constituencies that face similar challenges. Businesses in North Norfolk already face extra struggles to stay afloat, including training and retaining staff, finding affordable premises, and even things as simple as getting a strong and reliable phone and internet connection. D…”

“Let us start with the premise that good accessibility design benefits everyone. It obviously particularly benefits people with specific accessibility requirements. We are seeing some changes. The passenger watchdog has statutory powers for the first time, and your role is changing in terms of the enforcement of accessi…”

“Thank you for your candour. Can I ask the same question to you, Steve?”

“That is very helpful. Thank you.”

“We are going from an advocacy-based approach where, essentially, promoting accessibility is down to advocate groups and specifically tasked duty holders within the ecosystem, to one where, basically the system brings everyone together. That is good, but it is only as good as the direction it is being given from the top…”

“Stepping back a little bit, rather than backwards or up—zooming out a little bit—I am conscious that there are various things where we just do not know the detail. That has affected a number of the topics we have discussed this morning, but I am interested in each of your general assessments of the Bill as it is, from …”

“That is great—thank you. Not a duty, but part of your scope has been to promote accessibility. We talked about your new role in enforcement, but whose job is it to promote accessibility? I suppose that builds on some of the comments that we have made so far, in passing, about some colleagues’ worry about where the pass…”

“Pretty much every single element of the railways had to have an accessible travel policy as part of its licence conditions, but presumably what is transferring over to the passenger watchdog is a much broader remit, because there are to be far fewer licences to inspect and presumably far less detail in the travel polic…”

“The ATPs had quite a level of detail in some cases. There is the policy of accessible travel, but then there is, “This lift needs to go from this level to that level at this station,” and I worry that the granularity is what really affects the passenger experience. One bit of that going wrong can make the journey unvia…”

“They would not be checking because someone drove across the county border?”

“If there were to be greater access to NR3S—the big list of banned and suspended licences—for operators, what would the downside potentially be?”