Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government why they have given the rail industry an exemption that allows that industry a year longer than the aviation industry to comply with the provisions of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 in respect of compensation for delays or cancellations to services; and whether they plan to extend that exemption to providers of bus and coach services.

The Government has decided that the Consumer Rights Act (CRA) should apply in full to all transport services, including mainline passenger rail services, from 1 October 2016.

The 12 month exemption from one of the compensation provisions in the Consumer Rights Act was originally proposed to allow time for train operators to move to a consistent compensation scheme. However, the Government is now of the view that rail customers should not be denied any consumer rights or protections even for a temporary period while the rail industry works to put in place more consistent compensation arrangements between train operators. The Government has therefore withdrawn the draft statutory instrument which was to have been debated by Parliament and which, if approved, would have put this exemption in place.