Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how the statement in the Rail Sector Deal will enable the sector’s capability to trade internationally; whether to this end they will remain in compliance with European Union Agency for Railways' standards and procedures; and if not, what alternative standards and procedures would be used.

The Rail Sector Deal includes a number of measures to improve the sector’s capability to trade internationally. The Rail Industry will map UK rail supply chain strengths and weaknesses and align this to an analysis of overseas opportunities to better target its export activities. The sector will also deliver an export mentoring and secondment programme, to strengthen exporting ability.

After exiting the EU, the UK will have the flexibility to align with or diverge from new technical standards developed by the European Union Agency for Railways within a domestic standards framework. However, this does not mean that we wish to remove the UK from international norms in rail technical and safety standards. We will only diverge where there are clear arguments for doing so and after engaging fully with industry to assess the impact, while complying with our COTIF obligations, as well as the terms of a future UK-EU agreement.