Last week, I asked the Leader of the House of Commons, Andrea Leadsom, for Government time in the House of Commons to enable MPs and Ministers to debate the findings of the Gibb report on Southern Rail. You can view the exchange here: https://goo.gl/rCQrjD

In the meantime, I am pleased that the Speaker has allocated me a 90 minute debate in Parliament's second chamber, for MPs and the Rail Minister to hold a debate entitled 'The Gibb Report on Southern Rail'. This will take place on Wednesday 5 July and can be viewed on Parliament TV.

The report, produced by Chris Gibb, a rail expert with decades of industry experience, was commissioned by the Government with a mandate to pinpoint reasons for performance failure and recommend measures to improve the service.

The report reflected that Southern 'is simultaneously running at absolute capacity at peak times and undergoing a period of dramatic and traumatic change.' It concludes that the rail unions, supported by their members, 'are the primary cause for the system integrity to fail' and 'their action is undermining the system'. As the report makes clear 'The fact that nobody is being made redundant or losing pay against their wishes, that there will be more GTR trains operating with two people on board, and that safe Driver Only Operation is already extensive in GTR, the UK and Europe, just serve to make this dispute more difficult to comprehend, especially for the passengers.'

In addition to calling for a better approach from the rail unions, the report recommends moving some of the coastal network over to the Southeastern franchise, cutting the number of off-peak services to prepare for on-peak demand, electrifying more lines, building more depots further from London and handing control of Gatwick station to the airport operators. The report concludes that changing operator, at the same time as making these radical changes, could make the performance worse.