Greening's accountancy skills explained

With the role of Justine Greening in the ICWC franchise scandal receiving increasing attention, Eye thought the following tale might be instructive.
 
It dates from the publication of the Command Paper in March this year and records an exchange between the then Secretary of State for Transport and the World's Greatest Living Transport Correspondent.

Christian Wolmar (for it is he) recorded it in RAIL as follows:

When I suggested that it was unclear where the savings were coming from, I was roundly slapped down by La Greening.  We were allowed one question each in the press briefing on the Command Paper and I had asked her where the £3.5 bn annual savings would come from in the rail industry as it seemed an incredibly high proportion of the overall costs and I had not found any details in the McNulty report on the industry’s finances published last year. ‘Well’ she said, staring hard at me, ‘I’m glad you didn’t write the paper as it is clear that these saving can be made’.

Quite so minister, quite so.

Perhaps similar words of comfort relating to the ICWC franchise award, and in written form, sit in Philip Rutnam's desk?

UPDATE: This from the Prophet Job...

According to Conservative Home...

"It seems that auditors from PriceWaterhouseCoopers were called in by Justine Greening one week before the reshuffle. Those auditors discovered that officials hadn't properly accounted for inflation in their decision to award the West Coast Mainline to FirstGroup rather than Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Trains."

With one bound she was free! 

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

Hold on!

According to Politics Home...

A Downing Street spokesman said she should not have been expected to know of the issues earlier, as they involved extremely complex minutiae that ministers would not be involved in.  

Nonsense. Greening is/was accountable for the process!

Command Paper - Executive remuneration

This from Our Man at 222 Marylebone Road...

From the Command Paper

Executive remuneration has been the focus of public debate.

As a private sector company, Network Rail sets performance pay levels for its senior staff. In response to questions from the wider public about bonus awards that have been perceived as excessive in relation to Network Rail performance levels, Network Rail has worked with the ORR under the terms of its licence to adapt its remuneration approach.

The ORR has made clear throughout this review that its objective is to ensure that Network Rail’s executive bonus payouts are simple, transparent and clearly aligned with performance, meeting long-term taxpayer objectives by rewarding only sustained out performance of long-term financial targets, notably efficiency, while also reinforcing the need to hit overall non-financial regulatory targets, including safety and reliability.

So why was Ms Greening prepared to vote down the Annual Incentive Plan which Network Rail and ORR had worked together to adapt and ORR had cleared?

I ask only out of curiosity.

Command Paper - Industry members

This from Ithuriel...

From the Command Paper:

Government believes that these principles can best be delivered within the current Company Limited by Guarantee structure. We therefore welcome the governance proposals that Network Rail is announcing, including:

• reducing the number of members to a more sensible level, thereby improving the quality of decision-making. This could include removing industry members, who are prevented by conflict of interest from playing a substantial role;

Conflict of interest or being unwilling to bite the DfT hand that feeds them?

Command Paper - Measuring progress

This from Captain Deltic...

Celebrating 19 years of government meddling

John Major in 1993 - "British Rail is deeply inefficient"

Command Paper in 2012 - "The rail industry... remains unacceptably inefficient."

Progress indeed!

Command Paper 'great leap forward'

This from Our Man at 222 Marylebone Road...

Readers of Soviet Weekly's reports of party conferences in the 1950s will recognise the style of this extract from the Command Paper:

While promoting and protecting the achievements of recent years, we will now focus the industry on collaboration to achieve world-beating excellence in efficiency and in serving its customers – the taxpayer, passenger and the freight industry. Only by making sure everyone in the industry has clear objectives and aligned incentives will we be able to secure our objectives. Partnership working and driving behavioural change in the industry will be at the centre of our strategy for securing the savings we want.

Applause, prolonged and stormy applause, all stand, Cries of 'All power to the Coalition and Secretary Greening'.

Command Paper celebrates the markets!

This from Captain Deltic...

I note from section 4.67 of the Command Paper that:

Our preference would be that, building on the Competition Commission decisions and this work, operators and ROSCOs drive better value through a market-based approach.

So the ROSCOs are being encouraged to adopt market led pricing.

As in letting rolling stock fleets, which are in short supply, to the TOC offering the highest lease rental? (Probably not what DfT had in mind! Ed)

ITSO in disarray as CEO departs

Good to see that the government's plans for smartcards are going well.

According to Modern Railways...

Michael Leach has left the smartcard organisation ITSO, where he was Chief Executive Officer.

And last night Captain Deltic tweeted...

ITSO CEO has resigned today and left with immediate effect.

Perfect timing!

What with today's Command Paper expected to focus on the benefits of ITSO and smart ticketing.

DfT flounders for answers to railway reform

In advance of Friday's industry briefing on rail reform, government spinners have been hard at work.

In the FT today the Department unveiled its latest BIG idea...

Passenger trains along Cumbria's coast would be run by the state-owned body responsible for taking apart and cleaning up waste from civil nuclear plants under an offer made in response to government plans to overhaul rail policy.

Direct Rail Services, a subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority that operates freight trains, has held talks with Cumbria county council on taking over the running of passenger services on the coastal branch line between Carnforth and Carlisle.

So let's get this straight.

The solution to the problems of the rail industry is to errr.... get a nationalised company to run the trains!

Well at least this one's British, but for how long?

Command Paper to be published Friday?

According to today's lobby briefing...

Justine Greening will publish the Government response to the Sir Roy McNulty report on Friday.

So now you know...

UPDATE: This from one or two others...

No, the Command Paper will be published on Thursday! (You pays your money you takes your choice... Ed.)

DfT Command Paper delayed - Shocker

Sigh!

This from Earl Attlee...

My Honourable friend the Secretary of State for Transport (Justine Greening) has made the following Ministerial Statement.

Our railways are currently the most expensive in Europe. That is something we can and must tackle. The recent review by Sir Roy McNulty found scope to cut rail costs by 30 per cent - up to £1bn a year. My department is committed to working with the rail industry to develop a strategy to deliver a better value railway for the benefit of passengers, taxpayers and the wider economy.

In furtherance of that strategy, my Department has undertaken to develop and publish detailed proposals on delivering a sustainable railway including reform of Network Rail. I am today announcing my intention to publish a Command Paper that sets out those proposals early next year.

It will allow time for greater consideration of other issues central to the question of rail reform. This will also allow the Command Paper to properly reflect the consequences of my decision following our consultation on a national high speed rail network.

As part of the development of a comprehensive strategy for rail, and alongside the Command Paper, I also plan to consult on the scope to devolve responsibility for some rail passenger services in parts of England to sub-national bodies, and on issues relating to the review of fares and ticketing announced in May. In addition, the ORR expects to consult later this year on possible changes to its role, particularly in respect of future franchises.

Is it not paradoxical that the department of state tasked with ensuring that the trains run on time cannot itself meet any of its own timetables?