Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the working relationship between his Department's managing director of Passenger Services and (a) Renaissance Trains and (b) First Class Partnerships; and if he will make a statement.

The Department has arrangements in place to manage any actual or perceived conflicts of interest which may arise in relation to its senior members of staff. This process does not include routine assessments of the kind referred to.