Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to paragraph 24.1 of schedule 6 to part 1 of the Northern Rail franchise agreement, published in February 2016, what assessment he has made of Northern Rail's reports on recruited and trained drivers required to operate the franchise.

Clause 24.1 of Schedule 6 of the Northern Franchise Agreement refers to a commitment to provide an assessment by 31st March 2016 of the forward recruitment plans inherited from the previous franchisee for December 2017 timetable changes. The December 2017 changes were introduced without difficulty in this regard.

As further information, Northern had a requirement of approximately 1500 drivers to operate the May 2018 timetable and they recruited and trained additional Drivers resulting in a total of 1529 drivers currently.