Bungling transport officials misled ministers and caused the embarrassing collapse in the hand-over of the West Coast rail franchise, a damning report found today.
A report by senior businessman Sam Laidlaw revealed that civil servants in the Department for Transport ploughed on with the award of the main line franchise despite knowing the process was flawed.
They made “inaccurate statements” to ministers that meant bidders were left with inadequate information on which to base their proposals.
But the report clears ministers, including ex-Transport Secretary Justine Greening, of any wrongdoing during the fiasco.
However the three civil servants suspended in October have now been re-instated following the completion of a separate investigation into the West Coast affair.
But the decision to re-instate the officials “is separate from the disciplinary process and does not imply any conclusion on culpability”, the DfT said in a statement.
In August the DfT announced that FirstGroup, rather than Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Trains, had won the battle to operate the lucrative franchise for the next 13 years.
Sir Richard, whose company had run it since 1997, described the bidding process as “insane” and launched a legal challenge against the decision.
It was announced today that Virgin will carry on running services on the line for a further 23 months. The temporary deal will see it carry on with the London-Scotland route until November 9, 2014, after which the line will be let under a long-term franchise.
Current Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin, appointed after the award of the franchise, said: “The report makes extremely uncomfortable reading for the department. It has revealed serious failures, as well as offering us a number of sensible recommendations to put things right.”
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He added: “We won’t allow these mistakes to be made again and the department is determined to ensure all future franchise competitions are conducted on the basis of sound planning, the rigorous identification and oversight of risk and the right quality assurance.”
The report found that a catalogue of mistakes meant “franchise competition rules were breached”. Three DfT officials were suspended in the fiasco.
After Virgin was told it can carry on running services, group chief executive Tony Collins said: “I’m delighted. We will not be sitting back in the coming months but are keen to introduce more improvements to the service.”
