Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect on the railway industry of reducing the two metres covid-19 social distancing guidance to one metre plus.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department has engaged regularly with the railway industry to provide guidance and to understand the impact of any changes. This has included thorough discussion of changes to social distancing guidelines. It is important to recognise that railway capacity will still be highly constrained with one metre plus measures in place and we are continuing to ask the public to consider all other forms of transport before using public transport.