Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many visas a) her Department, b) the Vehicle Certification Agency, c) East-West Rail, d) National Highways, e) Network Rail, f) Trinity House, g) the Civil Aviation Authority and h) Crossrail International have sponsored since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Visa systems, outside of those specific to sponsored employment routes, do not capture the occupation or employer of an applicant and therefore it is not possible to give a comprehensive answer to this question. In addition, the department does not hold information sponsored employment routes for other employers.
Asked by: Lord Harper (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the efficacy of the engineering work carried since October 2022 to reduce flooding of the track near Chipping Sodbury, and what, if any, further work is planned.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The work Network Rail has completed to date has significantly improved the resilience of the track at Chipping Sodbury during flooding events. Resilience levels for closure have been raised from 36mm to 73mm of rainfall for a 5-day consecutive period. This work delayed the flooding impact of Storm Claudia in mid-November significantly, with flooding above railhead occurring only after 76mm of rain, providing an extra 27 hours of resilience and operational railway at Chipping Sodbury.
Network Rail plans to spend a further £1.45m on further measures at Chipping Sodbury starting in 2026/27, which will include removing some long-standing restrictions to discharging water, reinstatement and renewal of pumps at both tunnel portals, and ground investigation and monitoring work.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, What assessment has been made of the adequacy of training in the use of body worn cameras for rail staff on Train companies contracted to her Department.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Train Operating Companies (TOCs) must comply with the law, which includes the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The Office of Rail and Road, as the independent railway safety regulator for the UK, oversees these legal requirements. Its enforcement powers derive from the aforementioned 1974 Act, and range from giving advice and information, through to prosecution in the courts. This covers issues such as lone working, violence at work etc. The Secretary of State also requests through National Rail Contracts that TOCs measure perceptions of staff safety and develop action plans accordingly. We encourage rail operators to consider the personal safety of its rail staff, including encouraging greater use of Body Worn Video (BWV), which was proven in a 2019 trial to reduce violence against BWV wearing staff at railway stations by 47%.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will provide a list of all transport schemes given approval to progress following the Spending Review which had a lower benefit cost ratio score than the Ely Area Rail Capacity Enhancement.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Ely Area Capacity Enhancement (EACE) scheme was paused by the previous government in 2021, and no further funding was allocated to develop, update, or progress the EACE business case. As a result, there has been no ongoing work from which to produce a current or up-to-date benefit–cost ratio, meaning there is no basis upon which to provide the comparisons requested.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 02 December 2025 to Question 94590 on Railways: Season Tickets, what the cost of a standard-class annual rail season ticket from (a) Lostwithiel, (b) Bodmin Parkway, (c) Liskeard and (d) Saltash stations to London Paddington was between 03 March 2024 and 01 March 2025.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The cost of Annual Season tickets to London Paddington from a) was £24,856.00, b) Bodmin Parkway was £24,856.00, c) Liskeard was £24,856.00, and d) Saltash was £24,648.00 between 3 March 2024 and 1 March 2025.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what transparency, reporting and accounting requirements will be placed on the Office of Rail and Road to undertake effective monitoring and competition oversight of GBR’s retail activities.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
GBR’s licence will require it to comply with a code of practice, which will be owned and managed by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR). The code will govern GBR’s retail industry management functions and other relevant activity. It will incorporate clear requirements for how GBR interacts with all market participants and impose separation of decision-making where relevant.
Under this approach, third parties will be able to challenge any GBR decisions or actions they consider to be non-compliant, by raising them directly with the ORR. The ORR will be required to investigate and, if it considers that GBR has not complied, it will be able to demand corrective action by issuing binding orders.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of train services between Manchester and London in 2025; and how much has been spent on delay repay compensation to customers on those services in 2025.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Avanti West Coast is beginning to see consistent and steady performance improvements on the network. However, there is still more to do with punctuality behind the industry average and poor Network Rail infrastructure reliability continuing to be a leading cause of disruption, including on the Manchester route. In 2025, service levels to Manchester increased with two additional weekday services added to the timetable from September.
The Government produces annual figures relating to the amount of compensation that is paid out by train operating companies. The data for 2024/25 has been collected and will be published shortly. The data for 2025/26 will be collected at the end of the financial year and subsequently published.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate she has made of the net fiscal cost of freezing rail prices in each of the next five years.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
I refer the Honourable Member to the response I provided him to question 95968 on 4 December 2025.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of the rail fare freeze.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
I refer the Honourable Member to the response I provided him to question 95968 on 4 December 2025.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the answer of 27 November 2025 to Question 93855, if she will break down those (a) nominal and (b) real terms rises by year.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Office of Rail and Road publish annual statistics measuring the change in prices charged by train operating companies to rail passengers, normally introduced in March of each year. Table 7180 provides the average change in fares by regulated and unregulated tickets, for Great Britain, from 1995 to 2025. The data set also includes the Retail Prices Index from which real fare changes can be calculated. This can be found at the following link:
https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/finance/rail-fares/