Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many driver shortages have been reported by each rail company in the most recent period for which data is available.

Driver shortages and unavailability cause delays and cancellations, and so it is a very high priority for this government to ensure operators have sufficient number of drivers trained and available across the network.

Train operators use a variety of measures to track availability of drivers. For example, total headcount against target, unavailability due to training, illness or leave and levels of overtime, which may be used to balance fluctuations in availability. While these measures are not systematically reported to the Department, ministers have commissioned work to look in detail at the impact of driver unavailability on train performance and suggest options to improve.