Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether Office of Rail and Road issued rail operator licences will be invalid in the EU in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a withdrawal agreement.

As set out in the ‘Rail Transport if there’s no Brexit deal’ technical notice, published by the Government in October 2018, the European Commission has indicated that, in the event of no deal, operator licences issued by the ORR (as the UK’s licensing authority) to operators currently operating in the EU would not remain valid in the EU after EU exit. However, the technical notice also made clear that arrangements for cross-border services would be subject to any bilateral arrangements that the UK negotiates with individual EU countries. On the basis of the productive discussions with relevant member states, we remain confident about concluding appropriate bilateral arrangements so that these mutually-beneficial cross border services continue.