Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 24 April 2017 to Question 71377, on Southern: standards, on what date the Government plans to publish the report by Chris Gibb on performance of the Southern rail franchise; for what reasons the Government did not publish that report before the General Election; and if he will make a statement.

The Chris Gibb report was published by the Department for Transport on 22 June 2017. The report is now available on the GOV.UK website along with the Secretary of State’s response. Please see links provided: GOV.UK website link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/southern-rail-network-gibb-report

SoS response link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/gibb-report-on-southern-rail-network-government-response

As soon as we received the report, the Department assessed Chris Gibb’s technical recommendations against work or commitments that were already planned or underway. In early January we committed an extra £300m funding for Network Rail to boost the resilience of the infrastructure along the Brighton mainline and associated routes. The report could not be published during the pre-election period and we have published the report as soon as possible following the general election.