The Secretary of State and the Scottish Ministers shall each be the competent authority of Great Britain in relation to the railways financial status regulations.
The Secretary of State, the Scottish Ministers and, to the extent specified in subsection (2A) below, the National Assembly for Wales shall each be the competent authority of Great Britain, in relation to persons who operate services for the carriage of goods by railway, for the purposes of the public service obligations regulations.
For the purposes of subsection (2) above the National Assembly for Wales shall only be the competent authority in relation to services for the carriage of goods by railway which are operated within Wales.
Subsections (2) and (2A) cease to have effect on 3rd December 2012.
The following persons, that is to say—
shall each be the competent authority of Great Britain in relation to passenger service operators for the purposes of the public service obligations regulations.
For the purposes of subsection (3) above the Welsh Ministers shall only be the competent authority in relation to services for the carriage of passengers by railway which—
For the purposes of subsection (3) above, a Passenger Transport Executive shall only be the competent authority in relation to those railway passenger services which the Executive provide, or secure are provided, in exercise of their powers under section 10(1) of the Transport Act 1968 or section 13 of the Railways Act 2005.
For the purposes of subsection (3) above—
The Secretary of State ... may ... , as competent authority by virtue of subsection (3) above, give directions to any passenger service operator imposing on him obligations with respect to the provision or operation of railway passenger services.
It shall fall to the Secretary of State . . . to make any payments of compensation which are required to be made to a passenger service operator by any provision of the public service obligations regulations in respect of any obligations imposed on that operator by directions under subsection (6) above, and the Secretary of State . . . may, subject to and in accordance with the provisions of those regulations, determine the manner of calculating, and the conditions applicable to, those payments.
The power of giving directions under subsection (6) above shall be so exercised that the aggregate amount of any compensation payable under the public service obligations regulations, for periods ending after 1st April 1992, in respect of all obligations imposed by directions under that subsection shall not exceed £3,000 million or such greater sum not exceeding £5,000 million as the Secretary of State may by order specify.
A statutory instrument containing an order under subsection (8) above shall not be made unless a draft of the instrument has been laid before and approved by a resolution of the House of Commons.
Without prejudice to any right which the Secretary of State . . . may have under this Act to bring civil proceedings in respect of any contravention or apprehended contravention of any directions under subsection (6) above, the obligations imposed by any such directions shall not give rise to any form of duty or liability enforceable against a passenger service operator by proceedings before any court to which the passenger service operator would not otherwise be subject.
In this section—
"the public service obligations regulations" means the Public Service Obligations in Transport Regulations 2023;
"the railways financial status regulations" means Council Regulation (EEC) No. 1192/69 on common rules with respect to the financial status of railway undertakings.
Expressions used in this section and in Part I above have the same meaning in this section as they have in that Part.
Section 3 of the Railways Act 1974 (which is superseded by this section) shall cease to have effect.