Train Driving Licences and Certificates (Amendment) Regulations 2026

Lord Moylan Excerpts

Monday 23rd March 2026 Grand Committee

[Baroness Pidgeon (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for introducing these regulations so thoroughly. We on these Benches welcome the statutory instrument, which presents a pragmatic, evidence-based approach to modernising our railway workforce and opening up highly skilled and well-paid careers to the next generation.

For too long, the arbitrary age limit of 20 has meant that the rail industry has lost out on bright, capable school leavers who, when they finish their education at 18, have been forced to seek opportunities in other sectors. As we have heard, we are facing a demographic cliff edge in the railway in terms of age, while trying to make sure we have a workforce that represents the whole of our communities. That is really important. The statutory instrument allows for earlier training and that new talent pipeline. It is good to see that we are aligning ourselves with our European neighbours.

We need to take into account, though, the perspectives of those who operate our trains every day. Looking at the consultation, there were quite high numbers of respondents concerned about this, particularly current train drivers. I would therefore like to ask the Minister a few questions.

First, how is this going to be publicised? The Train Drivers Academy is going to have this comprehensive communications campaign, online guidance and so on, but how are the Government going to support the industry in co-ordinating this new outreach to attract new applicants? Secondly, can the Minister explain how the Government will work closely with the industry to reassure the existing workforce, who have expressed some concerns, and ensure that any issues are addressed? In achieving the policy objectives outlined in the post-implementation review, can the Minister outline additional measures the Government are actively considering, apart from this regulation, to promote rail careers and ensure that broader, diverse pipeline of workers in the sector? As long as this does not compromise rigorous recruitment and assessment processes, as the Minister has set out, and has high medical standards and so on, we gladly support this measure to empower our young people and secure the future of our rail workforce.

[Lord Moylan (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for setting out so clearly his succinct response to the issues raised by the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. It is good to have those comments on the record. It also saves me the trouble of asking all the questions that it asked and pressing him to give answers in his wrap-up. That has considerably shortened the remarks I entered the Room with.

On my part and on behalf of the Conservative Party, we wholly welcome this statutory instrument and the development it contains. It was, in fact, a Conservative initiative, as the Minister mentioned in his opening remarks. It is always good to have new measures that help youth employment at a time when youth unemployment is rising so dramatically under the current Government.

However, while I welcome the regulations wholeheartedly and without reservation, and while I think they are a very good thing in principle, I have slight doubts about whether they are going to make an enormous difference in practice. First, as the Government say, there is already a strong demand for train driver roles. Lots of people want to be train drivers, yet the fact is that the workforce is very restrictive. The Minister mentioned the retirement profile that is approaching, and I do not need to repeat that, but as far as I am aware, the average age is 47. Less than 3% are under 30, and women make up less than 11%. I wonder what has brought that about. It is not the restriction from the age of 20 that is causing that, and moving it to 18 is unlikely to change it, especially given that these are well-paid roles for which there is a great deal of demand.

What is in the process of happening as a result of the Government’s policies is that the Government are becoming the employer. The Government might say that Great British Rail is becoming the employer, but that does not exist and will not exists for several years at the rate things are going. The Government themselves—the Department for Transport, through its subsidiary companies—are the employer. So trying to understand, trying to tackle the root explanations for this strange profile in the workforce with a view to opening up the demographic of our train drivers, is a responsibility that falls squarely on the Government. I have not heard the Minister say what, as an employer, the Government are going to do about that.

I welcome that he has explained, I think quite convincingly, what he is going to do to make it easier for 16 to 18 year-olds to get on track in this direction, but what are they going to do about the existing profile of the workforce? How are they going to get people of other ages, who might be in their mid-20s or who might have done some other role, to enter the workforce at that stage—urgently—and get involved, given the cliff edge that we are promoting?

There are serious issues. We know that the workforce has tended to be restrictive about how one can enter it, and that its general profile is not reflective of the population at large. While I am not encouraging diversity for the sake of diversity, some of the problems we have are because the pool has been very narrow and widening it from 20 to 18 is not the key issue that will resolve it.

The Government’s impact assessment states that they have looked at other countries, including France, Germany and the Netherlands. If the Government are looking to other countries, they might also look to other working practices that need changing. One example is Sunday working, which in many countries is built into the contracts of train drivers. That is not so here, and we are dependent on voluntary overtime for Sunday running of the trains. It would be useful to know what the Government are thinking of doing about this as part of their general workforce programme, now that they are the employer.

On the question of age, I come back to the issue of Transport for London. The Government said that the age limit of 18 already applied at Transport for London, which is true, yet, as far as I can see, there are very few young drivers at Transport for London. We have the problem that, according to a freedom of information request, Transport for London does not currently employ a single train operator under the age of 23, and that person is a bit of an outlier anyway. Similar problems exist at Transport for London regarding retirement cliff edges, even though they operate this lower age limit for entry.

The general verdict is that we are in favour of the lower age limit and we recognise the problem, but we do not think this is enough. The Government will have to go a great deal further to solve the problems that the Minister set out in his opening remarks.

[Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank noble Lords for their attention and for their comments about this instrument.

In response to the noble Baroness’s questions, I reassure her that I and my officials are working closely with all the people involved to ensure that we can capture the interests of young people and promote awareness of the opportunities. I think it will be easier with 18 year-olds than it is with 20 year-olds because of the measures that I talked about, including apprenticeships and the prior preparation for these jobs. We know that it will be easier, and we intend to do a great deal to make sure that, across the industry, we engage young people and showcase what a career in train driving can offer.

The industry is more co-ordinated than it was. For example, I draw noble Lords’ attention to the train circulating to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the national railway system. It has a carriage devoted to interesting young people in railway careers, which has been enthusiastically welcomed wherever it has been. On a more long-term basis, operators will work closely with schools and colleges to deliver talks by other young train drivers, share experience and support activities that will inspire young people to consider this as a career. We know that we need to do more across communities, and the opportunity of engaging younger people will be a stimulus to achieve that.

The noble Baroness referred to the consultation in which there were objections from existing drivers to this proposal, but we do not believe it is correct to say that the majority of drivers opposed it. I have met a number who are very keen on it, including some people of a relatively venerable age. We think that the objections are individual and not representative of the wider industry view. Certainly ASLEF, the largest train-driving union, which represents 95% of drivers on the network, strongly supports the measure. For any who have expressed concerns, I believe they are mostly about somehow compromising the rigorous high standards that existing drivers must meet. I hope I have reassured the Committee that that will not be the case, that standards will continue to be as high as they are now and the full competitive selection process will still be followed. In any event, we will monitor how the new arrangements are working in practice as part of the longitudinal study.

Finally, the noble Baroness asked what additional measures the Government are actively considering. Aside from what I have already said about updating and widening access to existing rail apprenticeships, the Government recently invested £1 billion into the national youth employment initiative, which will help to create 200,000 new jobs and apprenticeships. Those measures will strengthen generally high quality apprenticeships, while the rail industry having the new apprenticeships that I talked about will encourage young people into this industry.

There are already key initiatives across the railway industry, including women in rail, the National Skills Academy for Rail’s routes into rail campaign, Network Rail’s inspire and STEM programmes and the young rail professionals network. We will make sure that they all embrace 18 year-olds in the future so that we get a more diverse pipeline of talent into the sector. My department will also look at potential reforms to the legislative framework for train driving to ensure that it remains fit for purpose and continues to equip train drivers with the training they need in this evolving industry. Of course, Great British Railways will make it easier to work with the industry to develop proposals for consultation over the next years.

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, for his general support for this measure and concur with him that it was initiated by the previous Government. He asks what else we will do. One of the answers is that there is a much more vigorous recruitment programme than under the previous Government. Severe shortages have developed since Covid. The Government are working extremely hard to make up the deficiency in vacancies and work out properly what the establishment of the railway is. Several operators clearly lost sight of that in the previous regime. We will raise the railway’s profile with schools and use the precedent of the bus industry, which similarly reduced the age some time ago and has found a good source of younger people.

The noble Lord referred to Sundays not being part of the working week. That is a real problem, and the industry has not been consistent on it. Some employers have Sundays within the working week. The Secretary of State in the other place has said a number of times that it is time that the railway employed people for seven days a week, since that is how it works. That will encourage employment characteristics that are more like the rest of the railway and, we hope, encourage people into the industry as well.

Lastly, the noble Lord raised the Underground’s lower limit and its apparent absence of young people as a consequence. My own surmise is that—I will write to him if this differs—recruitment to fill the night Tube, which he will recall, has distorted the age profile simply because there was a large recruitment of drivers for it. Subsequently, employment conditions changed again, and those people are now part of the normal workforce, so that distorted the age profile.

I hope that I have satisfactorily answered all the questions from noble Lords who have spoken in the debate. All that remains for me is to beg the Committee to consider the statutory instrument.