Ministerial Correction

Thursday 25th April 2019 Ministerial Corrections

Thursday 25 April 2019

Transport

Thursday 25th April 2019 Ministerial Corrections

East Midlands Rail Franchise

The following is an extract from the response by the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Andrew Jones), to an urgent question on Thursday 11 April 2019.

[Andrew Jones]

Stagecoach is an experienced bidder and fully aware of the franchise competition rules, so it is regrettable that it submitted a non-compliant bid that breached the established rules. In doing so, Stagecoach is responsible for its own disqualification. Bidders were invited to bid on the basis of a pension deficit recovery mechanism. They knew that at the very start of the process.

[Official Report, 11 April 2019, Vol. 658, c. 460.]

Letter of correction from the Under-Secretary of State for Transport:

An error has been identified in the response I gave to the hon. Member for Sheffield South East (Mr Betts).

The correct response should have been:

[Andrew Jones]

Stagecoach is an experienced bidder and fully aware of the franchise competition rules, so it is regrettable that it submitted a non-compliant bid that breached the established rules. In doing so, Stagecoach is responsible for its own disqualification. Bidders were invited to bid on the basis of a pension deficit recovery mechanism. They knew that was part of the process.