Commentary on provisions of the Act Further high speed rail works Section 54: Rights of entry in connection with high speed rail works and Section 55: Exercise of rights of entry
Section 54 allows an authorised person to enter land, in connection with a Bill or proposed Bill authorising a high speed rail line, for the purpose of conducting surveys or facilitating compliance with EU environmental protection legislation.
	Land may only be entered if it is within 500 metres of the centre of a proposed line of route. Subsection (10) allows the Secretary of State to alter this distance through an order either for all cases, or for a specific class of case. Subsection (11) stipulates that an order amending the distance for all cases is subject to the affirmative resolution Parliamentary procedure. Subsection (13) stipulates that an order amending the distance for a specific class of case is subject to negative resolution Parliamentary procedure.
	Subsection (2) of section 54 stipulates that for entry onto residential land, the person must be authorised by a warrant issued by a justice of the peace (for residential land in England and Wales) or a justice of the peace or sheriff (for residential land in Scotland). For any other land the person must be authorised in writing by the Secretary of State.
	Entry should only be authorised by the justice of the peace (in the case of residential land) or by the Secretary of State (for any other land) if it appears that: there is a genuine need to enter the land; all reasonable attempts have been made to obtain consent and; and either there is likely to be a Bill in Parliament to authorise a high speed rail line, i.e. a Command Paper to that effect has been published by the Government, or there already is such a Bill in Parliament.
	Under section 55, the authorisation is valid for 6 weeks after it has been authorised by the justice of the peace or the Secretary of State. Further, any authorised persons must, if requested, produce evidence of their authorisation and the purpose of entry; give notice of at least 14 days to the occupier; and, comply with any other conditions subject to which the authorisation was granted.
	Subsection (4) makes it an offence wilfully to obstruct any authorised person exercising this right of entry.