Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions officials in his Department have had with officials in the Office for Rail and Road on the development of that organisation’s (a) service standards and (b) strategic objectives in (a) 2017, (b) 2018 and (c) 2019.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is independent of Government. It is for the Board of the ORR to determine the organisation’s service standards and strategic objectives. These are set out in its annual business plan, which ORR develops after seeking the views of the Department for Transport and other stakeholders. Business plans for 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 are published on the ORR’s website at:

https://orr.gov.uk/about-orr/corporate-data/corporate-publications.

The Secretary of State issues statutory general guidance to the ORR in respect of the exercise of its functions as the independent economic and safety regulator for the railways under the Railways Acts of 1993 and 2005. The guidance was most recently updated in 2017 and was developed after discussion with the ORR. It is published on the Department’s website at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/railways-guidance-to-the-office-of-rail-and-road.