Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of Office for Rail and Road’s plans to monitor Network Rail’s (a) unit costs and (b) productivity at route level in Control Period 6.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has made significant changes to its regulatory approach to inform the planning for CP6, with an increased emphasis on route-level regulation of Network Rail and bottom-up appraisals of the deliverability and efficiency of its plans. These changes will increase transparency, creating stronger incentives on Network Rail to ensure improvements to its unit costs, efficiency and productivity, as well as to further improve the ORR’s ability to monitor Network Rail and hold it to account. The Government is working closely with the ORR to support these changes and improve the efficiency of the railway, whilst being mindful of the ORR’s statutory independence from Government and its accountability to Parliament for the effective delivery of its functions.