Member

Finally, I have some questions. I completely understand why the Minister might not have these figures to hand, but they are the real crux of the problems that disabled people face and how much money, I believe, is being spent in the wrong areas on access and the many compensation cases we are seeing. How much has been paid by each operator in the last five years in compensation or redress for passenger assistance failures? This is not “Delay Repay”; this is failure to help people off a train. How much has been spent on legal costs defending or settling those claims? How many claims have operators successfully defended and how many have been lost or settled? Does the ORR capture complaints through social media and, if not, why not? It is maybe not the best place to resolve some of those issues, but a lot more issues are discussed on social media than ever get through to the complaints process. Will His Majesty’s Government require or at least consider quarterly operator-level publication of compensation, legal costs and claims outcomes? I suspect a lot of money is being spent on failure rather than investing in infrastructure.