Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will set out a timetable for agreeing the new (a) National Rail Contracts and (b) Passenger Service Contracts.

The first NRCs were awarded at the end of May 2021 for Trans Pennine Express and South West Rail, with a rolling programme of awards to March 2022. PSCs will gradually replace NRCs. The Government will work with potential commercial partners and investors to design Passenger Service Contracts in a way that will create a healthy, sustainable commercial market, and will launch initial competitions by the time the emergency recovery agreements end in 2022.