Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of expanding sleeper services on carbon emissions from (a) cars and (b) domestic flights.

The Department has not carried out a recent assessment of the potential impact of expanding sleeper services on carbon emissions from cars and domestic flights. As the pandemic has changed travel habits, train operators are using this opportunity to reassess their services to ensure they provide rail timetables that meet new passenger travel patterns, are fit for the future, and carefully balance cost, capacity and performance.  This is about ensuring we have an efficient rail service that meets the travel patterns as they are now and forecast to be, recognising rail's contribution to low carbon travel. The Government is continuing to invest in the railways to make them greener.