Oral Answers to Questions

John McNally Excerpts

Thursday 24th May 2018 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[John Mc Nally (Falkirk) (SNP)]

1. What assessment he has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on the rail industry.

[Tommy Sheppard (Edinburgh East) (SNP)]

3. What assessment he has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on the rail industry.

[The Secretary of State for Transport (Chris Grayling)]

The Government’s rail sector report was published in December and included an analysis of the rail industry. We keep our analysis under constant review. Our future relationship with the EU on rail will be a matter for the negotiations. Both the UK and the EU have greatly benefited from investment in each other’s rail markets. We want that to continue as the UK leaves the EU.

[John Mc Nally]

The Secretary of State will be aware that passengers in Scotland have been protected from the impact of fare increases as a result of the Scottish Government’s cap of RPI minus 1%. Will he not take a leaf out of the Scottish Government’s book to ensure that passengers are not hit in their pockets as the result of his Government’s inability to provide even basic certainty over Brexit?

[Chris Grayling]

I am not sure quite what that has to do with our future relationship with the EU, but I want the rate of increase of rail fares to come down. The biggest barrier to that is the Labour party’s and the trade unions’ insistence that the RPI measure has to be at the heart of every pay increase in the rail industry. The industry collectively needs to move to RPI, but the training manuals for the unions that back the Labour party insist that it is unacceptable to negotiate on anything except an RPI increase.