Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 June 2020 to Question 60669, what the difference is in frequency of the additional financial scrutiny of train operators and the two operators that are in direct public ownership under the Emergency Measures Agreements as compared to those undertaken periodically under existing Franchise Agreement obligations.

The Emergency Measures Agreements (EMAs) have introduced a formal process of budget reviews in each four-week rail period to enable additional financial scrutiny of operators. This is a new process to reflect the fact that the Government is bearing financial risk on almost all operator costs under the EMAs. This risk previously sat with the private operators. The two operators under direct public ownership are not under EMA provisions but follow similar requirements.