Source · Select Committees · Transport Committee
Recommendation 20
20
Not Addressed
Add Passengers' Council Chair to posts requiring pre-appointment parliamentary committee hearings.
Recommendation
To enhance and help safeguard the independence of the Passengers’ Council, we recommend that the Chair of its board be added to the list of posts for which our Committee is expected to hold a pre-appointment hearing with the Government’s preferred candidate. (Recommendation, Paragraph 57)
Government Response Summary
The government's response discusses working with local leaders through GBR business units and MSAs, but fails to address the recommendation to add the Passengers’ Council Chair to the list of posts for pre-appointment hearings.
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
The Government partially agrees with this recommendation. The Government agrees that working with local leaders will be key to providing a railway that better suits the needs of local communities up and down the country. That is exactly why GBR will be organised locally, so that it can work collaboratively with devolved leaders to meet local needs. This means that all tiers of local government in England will benefit from empowered local GBR business units which will provide a single point of contact for local railway matters. The reason that the Bill focuses on MSAs is because rail journeys, even local ones, usually span local authority boundaries. MSAs are usually large enough, or contain sufficient rail services, to consider a local railway network in the round. Mayors have a democratic mandate to take difficult decisions, can convene local partners, and tackle regional challenges. This provides the scale and authority needed to integrate rail with wider growth and transport strategies. Equally the Government acknowledges that rail services usually serve a wider geography than MSA boundaries too, and some local areas do not have MSAs in place. As the Government agrees with the Committee that GBR will need to work with local leaders of all levels, we will continue to consider their role as the design of GBR and its local business units is developed.