Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department was responsible for conducting the East Midlands Trains franchise competition; and if this administration of the process includes the (a) scoping, (b) evaluation of compliance and (c) award of franchise bids.

The Department for Transport conducted the East Midlands franchise competition as per the usual process for franchising: specifying the minimum requirements for bids, evaluating bidders’ proposals against those requirements, reviewing bids to check whether they were compliant with the rules of the competition and awarding the franchise contract.