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Railways: Franchises
Lord Bradshaw asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether there are any European regulations precluding the extension or granting of a long franchise to a train operating company. [HL4636]
Railways: Rolling Stock
Lord Bradshaw asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they must assent to an order being placed by a train operating company for additional rolling stock to meet rising levels of demand for rail travel; and, if so, how many requests from train operating companies for additional rolling stock they have turned down in 2007 and 2008; and [HL4633]
How many requests they have received from train operating companies for additional rolling stock to meet increasing demand expected to arise when the December 2008 timetable changes come into effect. [HL4634]
Lord Bassam of Brighton: Government have a formal role in the approval of rolling stock leases because of their responsibilities as operator of last resort. This, though, will not normally prevent train operators procuring new rolling stock on their own account unless it would lead to an increase in the level of government subsidy.
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The Department for Transport meets train operators regularly to discuss a range of topics, including proposals for extra rolling stock. However, no recent proposal for the department to fund extra rolling stock, other than through the high-level output specification process, has proceeded beyond the informal discussion stage.
Railways: West Anglia
Lord Hanningfield asked Her Majesty's Government:
What percentage of peak-time trains using the West Anglia main line were delayed in each of the past 10 years. [HL4564]
Lord Bassam of Brighton: These are operational matters for Network Rail as the owner and operator of the national rail network. The details can be obtained from Network Rail's chief executive at the following address: Iain Coucher, Chief Executive, Network Rail, 40 Melton Street, London, NW1 2EE.
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Revenue and Customs: Varney Report
Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether unacceptable tax planning and behaviours, as described in HM Revenue and Customs's Varney report, are consistent with high standards of corporate governance and corporate social responsibility in large British businesses. [HL4520]
Lord Davies of Oldham: One of the outcomes of the Varney report was that both business and HMRC wanted to see an efficient risk-based approach to dealing with tax matters. HMRC has issued detailed guidance on its approach to tax compliance risk management for the largest businesses. The risk framework guidance makes it clear that corporate governance, including transparency in its dealings with HMRC, is a behavioural risk which will be taken into account in classifying a business as low risk or not. HMRC has supported nearly 40 per cent of large businesses to become low risk while deploying specialist resource to high-risk businesses.
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