Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will grant an immediate emergency exemption of at least six months to allow West Coast Rail company to make a new application for a new exemption certificate.

The decisions on issuing exemptions from safety requirements, including the Railway Safety Regulations 1999, are a matter for the Office of Rail and Road, in its capacity as the independent regulator for rail safety. The Department has no powers to issue exemptions from the safety requirements itself.