Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect of his Department’s decision to delay the re-tendering of the East Midlands Trains franchise from October 2015 to August 2019 on the compliance of that operator’s fleet with rail accessibility requirements which came into force on 1 January 2020.

No specific assessment on rolling stock compliance has been made regarding the effect of re-scheduling the franchise competitions. We continue to push the rail industry for continuous improvement to deliver accessible journeys, and an accessible fleet is planned to be in place on the East Midlands franchise from December 2020.