Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Written Statement of 21 September 2020, HCWS460 on Rail Update, what steps he plans to take to ensure that operators improve co-ordination with each other to reduce capital costs.

The Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements have obligations to co-ordinate across the industry to reduce fragmentation and cost duplication, and encourage efficiency. Capital budgets and spend will face enhanced scrutiny and challenge. Performance assessments of the quality of cross industry collaboration and financial performance will be made, and outcomes of this will be linked to the performance fee which can be earned by well-performing franchisees.