182.Sections 201 to 204 and Schedule 14 provide for the establishment of the Strategic Rail Authority (“the Authority”). The Authority will be a body corporate and will have between eight and fourteen members. Members will be appointed by the Secretary of State who may, by order made by statutory instrument, substitute different figures for the minimum and maximum membership of the Authority. In making appointments the Secretary of State is to have regard to the desirability of appointing persons who have experience of, and shown capacity in, some matter relevant to the functions of the Authority. One member of the Board is to be appointed after consultation with the National Assembly for Wales, and one after consultation with the Scottish Ministers. In making these appointments the Secretary of State will need to have regard to the desirability of appointing a person who is familiar with the special requirements and circumstances of Scotland or of Wales.
183.The Authority will not be a Crown body but will be a Non-Departmental Public Body. The Authority’s staff will not be civil servants. The chairman of the Authority is to be appointed by the Secretary of State and the other members (including any deputy chairman) are to be appointed by the Secretary of State after consultation with the chairman. The Authority appoints it own chief executive, with the Secretary of State’s approval, who is to be appointed a member of the authority.
184.Schedule 14 covers provision for the appointment, tenure and remuneration of the members and staff of the Authority and for procedural matters. Paragraph 1(4) makes standard provision for the Secretary of State to remove any member from office on the grounds of incapacity or misbehaviour. The Authority will have the power to make pension provisions for its staff, including the administration of Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme arrangements. The Schedule sets out provisions as to members’ interests and conduct to prevent conflicts of interest arising.
185.Schedule 14 also provides for the financing of the Authority. The Authority will be funded by the Secretary of State, and will also be entitled to borrow money, both from the Secretary of State and temporarily from other sources (eg by overdraft or bridging facility) with the consent of the Secretary of State and the approval of the Treasury. Restrictions on borrowing and a borrowing limit are set out. Provision is made as to the terms of any loans from the Secretary of State. The requirements for accounts and audit are set out, the Authority’s accounts are to be audited by the National Audit Office. The Secretary of State is allowed to guarantee sums borrowed by the Authority, and the procedures which must be followed to facilitate this are laid down. The Schedule allows the Secretary of State to require the payment to him of sums which are received by the Authority, in particular where these are surplus. The Secretary of State is also able to make regulations for the purposes of eliminating or reducing the Authority’s liabilities to tax.
186.The Authority is permitted to set up committees and sub committees and is allowed to delegate functions to its members, staff, committees and sub-committees and wholly owned subsidiary companies.
187.The Secretary of State is required to prepare and to update a financial framework for the Authority which will determine the rules and principles by which the Authority must run its own finances and matters relating to its employees.
Commentary on Sections Part IV: Railways Chapter I: the Strategic Rail Authority Sections 201 to 204 and Schedule 14: The Strategic Rail Authority