Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of public ownership of the railways on Government debt in the (a) short and (b) medium term.

Both publicly and privately owned DfT-contracted train operating companies are already included in the public sector, classified by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as public non-financial corporations currently. A transfer of these DfT-contracted train operating companies to government ownership will have no immediate impact on public debt statistics. The ONS are responsible for classification decisions affecting the public finances and measurement of public debt.