To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on how many occasions his Department has been unable to notify Parliament of the particulars of a liability and thus fulfil the required 14 days’ notice prior to that liability going live in the last 12 months.

During the past twelve months, the Department was unable to give full Parliamentary notification prior to a contingent liability going live on two occasions, as follows:

• Indemnity and loan facility to the administrators of Monarch Airlines, to support the repatriation of UK passengers stranded overseas when the airline collapsed. This liability was created shortly after Monarch entered administration in the early hours of Monday 2 October 2017. As Monarch was still trading up until this date, which fell during a Parliamentary recess, there was no possibility of giving the House advance notice of the liability. The Secretary of State gave an oral statement to the House on Monday 9 October 2017 (the first sitting day thereafter) and letters detailing the liability, which was commercially sensitive at the time, were sent to the chairs of the Transport and Public Accounts committees subsequently.

• Undertakings given to Great Western Railways relating to the future operations of Heathrow Express, where due to the highly commercial and confidential nature of the negotiations with Heathrow Airport Limited (HAL) and First Greater Western Limited (FGW) and the need to conclude the deal quickly it was not possible to notify Parliament prior concluding the agreements and the liabilities going live. The liabilities were necessary in order to secure the deal that delivers significant benefits to the Department, such as the savings generated from not building a replacement depot for Heathrow Express rolling stock at Langley as part of the HS2 scheme. The Secretary of State gave a written statement to the House (HCWS748) on the matter on 11 June 2018.