Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, under what circumstances his Department may remove a franchise from a train operating company before the scheduled end of a franchise contract.

Schedule 10 in the Franchise Agreement between the Secretary of State and the train operator defines under what circumstances the Department can remove a franchise from a train operating company before the scheduled end of a franchise contract – copies of all Franchise Agreements can be found on the Government website at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/public-register-of-rail-passenger-franchise-agreements.