Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what methodology his Department uses to assess the performance of franchises in relation to delivering a good service for disabled users.

As a condition of their licence, train operating companies must publish a Disabled People’s Protection Policy which sets out the level of service they will provide to disabled passengers. This must be approved by and is monitored by the independent regulator, the Office of Road and Rail (ORR), who have the powers to take enforcement action where that service is not provided.

Furthermore, the ORR has recently launched a consultation on wide-ranging reforms to the Disabled People's Protection Policy designed to bring greater quality, consistency and reliability to Assisted Travel for disabled passengers. The proposed reforms include strengthening their monitoring of train operating companies obligations regarding provision of information on what assistance is available and how to obtain it.

The Department also includes challenging customer satisfaction targets in Franchise Agreements for a range of key measures and regularly monitors performance against them. The targets incentivise train companies to deliver a consistently high-quality experience for all passengers, including disabled users, and where they are missed, operators must invest in improvements.