Following a request through my Transport Select Committee, I have received a letter from Ian Prosser, the Director of Rail Safety for the Office of Rail and Road. Mr Prosser has regulatory responsibility for safety on our railways. As his letter states, the Rail regulator is of the view that the new Driver-only Operated trains which Southern are rolling out are safe. I made the point to the leaders of the RMT and ALSEF that it is for the safety regulator to opine on safety, not the Unions. With this letter in mind, I again call on the unions to stop using safety as a justification for this industrial action. To do so is not only inaccurate but has the effect of misleading passengers that this type of technology, which is used across 30% of our railway, is unsafe. If that were the case, the unions would be on strike on the lines where it has been operating for decades. The letter is attached to this article.