Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to tender the (a) LNER and (b) Northern Rail contracts to private sector companies.

No decisions about whether to tender the LNER or Northern Rail contracts have yet been taken, although the intention is to tender these to the private sector at an appropriate point in the future. However, currently the government is focused on delivering essential rail services during the pandemic. Last week the Secretary of State announced the introduction of new Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements which will enable franchised train operators to continue delivering for passengers at the current time.