Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he is taking steps to help ensure that rail operations run by the Operator of Last Resort are subject to the same level of public transparency as contracts with private sector operators.

The Department regularly takes steps to ensure it complies with its transparency obligations across all train operator contracts and aims for consistency between publicly and privately owned operators in the relevant information it makes public, including in relation to train performance, customer experience and satisfaction.

The Operator of Last Resort (OLR) train operators are treated with equivalence to their private sector contractors in the way their contracts are managed, their performance assessed and addressed, the Department’s requirements of their business plans, budgets and any industry efficiencies expected. They are themselves subject to the Freedom of Information Act (2000) and the provisions of the Environmental Information Regulations (2004) and will provide information under their own Freedom of Information Act (2000) publication schemes.

The Department publishes contractual and performance information relating to both National Rail Contract train operators and OLR train operators in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (2000) on the Rail Public Register.