Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of ensuring that all public-facing transport staff participate in mandatory autism awareness and sensitivity training.

This Government wants to focus on how transport can be designed, built and operated to better serve the people who use it – delivering on our pledge to put people at the heart of what we do on transport and enabling them to live healthy, fulfilling lives without barriers to opportunity.

The Government is committed to delivering a transport network which allows disabled people, including those with less visible impairments, such as autism, to travel easily and confidently, with dignity and without extra cost.

Having clear accountability and appropriately trained staff acting to support passengers, whether disabled or not, to make the journeys they want and need to make is essential. To support this, many staff working on our public transport network already undertake disability awareness training.

The Government expects Local Authorities and Transport Operators to lead this process and we want to empower them to do this. That is why we are bringing forward the Bus Services (No.2) Bill, and undertaking wider reform on our railway, including the establishment of Great British Railways with a customer-focused culture.