Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to page 11 of Stagecoach Group plc’s analyst and investor presentation of 27 November 2014 on award of the Inter City East Coast franchise, what effect the recent changes to the franchise agreement will have on the sum of £2.3 billion which Stagecoach Transport Holdings Limited and Virgin Holdings Limited intended to pay the Government in real terms premium payments between 2014 and 2023; and what the value was of each such payment received by his Department to date.

All premiums due to date under the contract have been paid. Payments by franchised operators are published by ORR annually and can be found on their website. From 2020 there will be a new public private partnership on the East Coast, the East Coast Partnership, one of the first of a new generation of integrated regional rail operations. This will include appropriate contributions from the new private partner under a long-term competitively procured contract.