Select committee: Transport Committee
Recommendation 19
8th Report - Railways Bill
Published 10 Feb 2026
Addressed to Department for Transport
Transport Committee Railways Bill All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Passengers’ Council will be required by the Bill to protect passengers’ rights through monitoring operators’ compliance with its standards and receiving, considering and investigating complaints. It must be trusted to carry out that role. We consider it unlikely in the extreme that the Council would find a frivolous matter worthy of referral to ORR for enforcement. The Bill should therefore be amended to require ORR to take action from the range of enforcement actions open to them, unless there is a legal impediment to doing so or the issue has been satisfactorily remedied, within a limited timeframe following a referral of an issue by the Passengers’ Council. (Recommendation, Paragraph 55)
From: Transport Committee, 8th Report - Railways Bill (HC 1472), 10 February 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 24 April 2026 (deadline 10 April 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government welcomes the Committee's report and supports the Bill's main purpose, but on many recommendations it agrees only in part, notes them or disagrees that amending the Bill is needed.
- On timelines, it agrees with Recommendation 1 and is "happy to commit to publishing a document this Spring" outlining key documents and target dates.
- On the Long Term Rail Strategy, it partially agrees and disagrees the Bill is the place for more detail, but will publish a discussion document alongside Bill passage through the House of Lords.
- On the Secretary of State's power of direction (clause 7), it partially agrees but disagrees that amending the Bill is necessary, citing existing precedent and public law.
- On GBR's licence, it "will aim to publish" a policy document on the draft licence's contents before Commons Report Stage, with full consultation beginning later this year.