To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 21 January 2010, Official Report, column 35WS, on rail franchises, whether the consultation with key stakeholders in respect of the proposed rail franchise for InterCity East Coast will include (a) Peterborough City Council, (b) Opportunity Peterborough Urban Regeneration Company, (c) Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce, (d) Peterborough Environment City Trust and (e) Members of Parliament; and if he will make a statement. (314030)

The InterCity East Coast Franchise consultation document has been published on the Department for Transport’s website at:

www.dft.gov.uk

We welcome responses from all interested parties. Peterborough city council and Members of Parliament with constituencies in the InterCity East Coast franchise area are formal consultees and have been notified that the consultation is taking place, but it is also open to any other interested party to request a copy of the consultation document and respond to the consultation.

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how many rail franchises he expects to re-tender in each of the next four years. (314277)

Three new franchises are expected to start in 2011, two in 2012, one in 2013 and one in 2014.

This assumes that the operators of franchises containing break points meet the continuation review criteria related to performance in the cases where these reviews have not yet taken place.