Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the cost to the public purse was of funding provided to rail franchises in compensation for strikes in 2022.

No compensation has been paid by the Department to train operators to cover lost revenue due to strike action in 2022. Under the terms of the operator agreements put in place since the onset of COVID, the Government is on revenue risk not operators and hence operators are not financially affected by any fluctuations in revenue.