Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the obligations of landowners near railway tracks to maintain land to avoid the risk of fire causing disruption to rail services.

The Department has not made a specific assessment of the effectiveness of landowners’ obligations in relation to fire prevention adjacent to railway property. Responsibility for managing vegetation and other fire risks rests with the relevant landowner, while Network Rail works with neighbouring landowners where risks to the safe and reliable operation of the railway are identified and undertakes its own vegetation management programme to reduce the risk of disruption.