Call for Evidence

Terms of Reference - Minimum service levels for rail

The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill is currently working its way through Parliament. If passed, the Bill would allow the Secretary of State to make regulations setting out the minimum service required in certain sectors—including rail services—during industrial action. Unions and workers would have to comply with these, or face losing protections against being sued or dismissed.

The Government has said that rail is one of the sectors (along with fire and ambulance services) for which the legislation will be implemented first, and that it expects to publish consultations on these sectors during the passage of the Bill.

The Transport Committee plans to examine the process by which minimum service levels for rail services will be defined in regulations, and how they could work in practice, should the Bill become law.

The Committee would welcome written evidence about how minimum service levels could operate on the railway and the particular factors that need to be taken into account in rail, including evidence that addresses the following points:

1. How a minimum service level on the rail network could be defined and the factors that should be taken into account, including whether it would be set with reference to proportion of the timetable, service frequency, network coverage, key routes or other benchmarks;
2. What process should be followed to arrive at a defined minimum service level, including the roles of unions, train operating companies and Network Rail, and how and when it should be reviewed; and how the availability of alternative transport modes should be taken into account;
3. How the views of rail passengers, workers and freight customers and the needs of public services and the wider economy should be taken into account and, where necessary, prioritised;
4. What level of detail is required in the specification of a minimum service level, and what room for flexibility in applying it is needed;
5. What obligations would be placed on operators to provide minimum service levels, and by what mechanism;
6. How employers would determine the number and nature of staff required to operate a minimum service, and how different staff roles will be affected by the definition of minimum service levels;
7. What specific considerations apply to defining minimum service levels for rail freight, and how this affects the network as a whole;
8. How operators currently assess how services can be provided on days of industrial action or other disruption, and how this would compare to a minimum service level set in regulations;
9. What comparisons can be made with and lessons learned from other countries with minimum service level provisions for rail services; and
10. What unintended consequences could arise from the introduction of minimum service levels in rail.