Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to (a) improve rail safety standards, (b) reduce the number of trains which pass through red signals and (c) mitigate the risk of collision when trains pass through red signals.

While the UK has one of the safest rail networks in the world, my Department continues to work closely with the rail regulator, the Office of Rail and Road, and the rail industry, who have primary responsibility for setting standards, to improve the systems and measures in place that protect workers, passengers and the wider public.

The Department is supporting the Rail Safety Standards Board in its work to reduce the safety risk of signals passed at danger, which will be a priority for ORR’s inspections in 2019-2020 and will focus on improving driver vigilance. To enable the roll out of the latest standards of train protection and digital signalling, which will bring even greater levels of safety, we are also developing the East Coast Digital Programme and supporting Network Rail’s Digital Railway Long-Term Deployment Plan.