Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the cleaning of Northern Rail’s trains and stations, what hygiene and health targets are used; and on which occasions sub-contractors have failed to meet those targets since the Operator of Last Resort took over the franchise.

The Department monitors customer perception of cleanliness through the National Rail Passenger surveys. Whilst Northern’s train cleaning is done in house, cleaning for stations is sub-contracted and so any cleaning targets for stations are set and managed directly through the contracts between Northern Trains Ltd and the contractor.