Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will issue guidance to train operating companies on the use of private prosecutions for contraventions of conditions of carriage.

We expect operators to ensure their policy on ticketing is clear and fair for passengers at all times and have instructed an urgent review of the cases in question, with a view to resolving them.

Ticketing has become far too complicated, which is why we plan to simplify it as part of the biggest overhaul of our railways in a generation.