Select committee: Transport Committee
9th Report - Rail franchising
HC 66
Published 5 February 2017
Transport Committee Rail franchising inquiry Report on parliament.uk ↗
At a glanceGovernment response published 26 April 2017
The government's response
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 says it "rejects the Committee's premise that franchising is no longer fit for purpose", while welcoming "a number of the report's recommendations".
- On open access and track access charges, the Government "agrees" and is working with the ORR on options. It has consulted on a public service obligation levy and "will consider all responses before deciding how to proceed with the levy".
- On the TSGN franchise, the Government "partially agrees", states "There are no plans to strip GTR of the TSGN franchise", and says it continues to consider a range of options.
- It disagrees with moving enforcement and monitoring to the ORR, saying these matters "rightly should remain with the signatory of the relevant franchise agreement", the Secretary of State.
- On enforcement policy, the Department "cannot provide a definitive response" on whether an update is needed, and "will provide an update to the committee in summer 2017".
What the committee recommended
No recommendations or conclusions have been extracted from this report. This is normal for correspondence and for special reports.
Sources
- 9th Report - Rail franchising ↗The committee's report, HC 66, parliament.uk
- 10th Special Report - Rail franchising: Government Response to the Committee's Ninth Report of Session 2016–17 ↗The government's response, 26 April 2017, parliament.uk