Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Office of Rail and Road has taken to assess the safety of Network Rail’s Modernising Maintenance programme.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is monitoring Network Rail’s workforce modernisation plans to ensure that it is not compromising on efficient and safe delivery. The ORR attends the Network Rail Safety Validation panel that is working through the management of the change process that Network Rail is following. Network Rail continues to explore technological solutions that could be deployed to conduct maintenance more safely and efficiently. A good example of this is the adoption of drones which are already being used to supplement standard maintenance and inspection activities with various use cases identified including structures, track and overhead line equipment (OLE).