Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether (a) Arriva Rail North and (b) First Transpennine spent one per cent of their revenue on innovation in each year of their franchise required by the Innovation in Franchising Fund.

The franchise agreements with Northern and TransPennine Express (TPE) require them to deposit an amount equal to 1% of their estimated turnover for each Innovation Year, into an Innovation Account, within seven day of the start of that Innovation Year.

The Innovation in Franchising Fund is made available to the franchisee to promote innovation, and the successful exploitation of new ideas, which can be new to the company, organisation, industry or sector. It applies to products services, business processes and models, marketing and enabling technologies. The franchisee may draw from the fund to deliver their proposed schemes that are agreed by the Department. Northern’s Year 1 commenced 1 April 2018 and it is compliant with the relevant contractual obligations for that year. TPE’s first innovation year started 01 April 2017; for Innovation years 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018 and 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019, TPE is compliant with the relevant contractual obligations.