Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of extra funding he announced on 1 September 2016 on the performance of Southern Rail.

Network Rail made £20m available from current funding, in order to make improvements on the Southern network. My Rt Hon Friend, the Secretary of State for Transport announced the appointment of Chris Gibb, in order to oversee the use of this fund and lead a joint board, which also has passenger representation. We continue to be updated on progress and we have both met Mr Gibb recently and he will be providing a full report to me by the end of the year.