Schedule 4: Reviews by ORR of access charges and licence conditions
218.Paragraph 2. This paragraph broadens the scope of an access charges review so that this must include licence conditions for example in relation to the desired outputs (such as safety, capacity and reliability) of the railway, and the timing of the next review and the circumstances in which this could be brought forward.
219.It also requires the ORR to give notice of its proposal to undertake an access charges review giving at least four weeks in urgent cases (and subject to consultation), and otherwise three months.
220.The Secretary of State and the Scottish Ministers are required as appropriate to provide within the notice period information about what they want to be achieved (i.e. their desired output specification) for railway activities and the public finance available. They may at the same time suggest when the next access charges review should be undertaken and the circumstances in which it would be appropriate to bring this forward. The notice can be extended or withdrawn by the ORR and Ministers may also notify the ORR that previously supplied information remains valid.
221.Ministers may revise the information they had provided if the ORR finds as a review of access charges progresses that the desired output specification cannot be achieved within the public financial resources. If such a revision still does not match desired outputs with resources there is a requirement to repeat the process once. It also gives an explicit obligation for the ORR to consider whether an access charges review would result in any adverse consequences for operators, and to have regard to any resulting need for mitigation or compensation.
222.The ORR must conduct a review of access charges (which engages its general duties under s4 of the 1993 Act) in a manner that it considers is most likely to secure what Ministers seek (as revised) within the public financial resources notified.
223.Where the ORR considers that the public financial resources are not sufficient to meet Ministers' desired output specifications despite revisions made by them, the ORR will determine how much of what is wanted by Ministers should be achieved using the available resources.
224.Paragraph 4. This provision requires the ORR, before consulting more widely on its review conclusions, to consult Ministers on the linked proposed modifications to licences dealing with output requirements for which Ministers had provided information.
225.Paragraphs 5 to 10. These provisions relate to what happens if the ORR’s access review conclusions give rise to objections. In considering any revised review notice the ORR must also endeavour to achieve what Ministers want (as revised) within the public financial resources notified. The information that Ministers supplied must be provided by the ORR to the Competition Commission to accompany any reference or to assist the Commission in considering vetoing or making changes. Where the ORR proposes to make changes following a Competition Commission report, or subsequently modifies its proposals Ministers may, within a specified period of time, revise the information they supplied. The ORR must then consider the revised information before making the changes and include it with any notice to the Competition Commission.
226.Paragraph 11. This is a transitional provision that covers the situation where the ORR has given a review notice of its conclusions before the revised access charges review procedures set out in Schedule 4 come into force. Where there are objections to that notice, any new review notice or reference to the Competition Commission may or may not follow the new procedures set out in this Schedule at the ORR’s discretion.