Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many civil servants in her Department are working on the open access applicaiton from FirstGroup for Lumo services between London Paddington and Paignton.

Access to the rail network including decisions on Open Access applications is a matter for the Office of Rail and Road (ORR). When DfT provides views on individual applications as a key stakeholder, it does so with input from rail analytical and operational teams as required.