Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the statement by Baroness Sugg on 29 November (HL Deb, cols 679–82), whether any other rail company, besides Stagecoach Group and Virgin Rail Group on the East Coast franchise, has indicated to HM Government a desire to end its existing franchise early and forge a public–private partnership; and if so, which.

Due to commercial confidentiality, we don’t comment on the financial position of individual franchises. We work closely with all our franchisees throughout their contracts and monitor their progress against their contractual commitments. We expect all operators and their guarantors to continue to fulfil their financial and contractual commitments.