The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels: Passenger Railway Services) Regulations 2023

Made: 7th December 2023

Coming into force in accordance with regulation 1(2)

A draft of these Regulations was laid before Parliament in accordance with section 234F(4) of the 1992 Act and approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.

Citation, commencement, extent and application

1

• (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels: Passenger Railway Services) Regulations 2023.

• (2) These Regulations come into force on the later of the following—

• (a) the time immediately after the relevant Code of Practice comes into effect in accordance with an order under section 204(3) of the 1992 Act; and

• (b) the day after the day on which these Regulations are made.

• (3) In paragraph (2) “the relevant Code of Practice” means the first Code of Practice issued by the Secretary of State under section 203 of the 1992 Act on reasonable steps to be taken by a trade union to ensure that all members of the union who are identified in a work notice under section 234C of the 1992 Act comply with the notice[^f00002].

• (4) These Regulations extend to England and Wales and Scotland.

• (5) These Regulations have effect in relation to any strike that takes place after the day on which they come into force, even if—

• (a) notice of the strike under section 234A of the 1992 Act (requirement on trade union to give notice of industrial action)[^f00003] was given on or before that day; or

• (b) the date of the ballot in respect of the strike was on or before 20th July 2023[^f00004].

Interpretation

2

• (1) In these Regulations—

• “the 1992 Act” means the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992;

• “the 1993 Act” means the Railways Act 1993[^f00005];

• “passenger railway services” means— infrastructure services; and train operation services;

• “infrastructure services” means any of the following services provided by an infrastructure manager — reactive maintenance of any part of a network; the exercise of day-to-day control over train movements over or along any track comprised in a network; the operation or reactive maintenance (or both) of a railway signalling system or of any other railway communication equipment; the operation or reactive maintenance (or both) of railway crossings, including level crossings, overbridges, underbridges and tunnels; the control of electrical conductor rails or overhead lines, of any supports for such rails or lines, and of any electrical substations or power connections used or to be used in connection with such rails or lines, and the provision of electrical power by such rails or lines; the provision or operation (or both) of services for the response to, and resolution of, incidents on or about the railway including services for the recovery or repair of locomotives or other rolling stock in connection with any accident, malfunction or mechanical or electrical failure; the provision or operation (or both) of services for keeping track free from, or serviceable notwithstanding, obstruction (whether by snow, ice, water, fallen leaves or any other natural or artificial obstacle or hindrance) or for removing any such obstruction; any of the following services for plant, equipment or machinery used in carrying on any of the activities specified in sub-paragraphs (a) to (g)— provision; operation; reactive maintenance; services provided for the purpose of reactive maintenance or stabling (or both) of rolling stock used in carrying on any of the activities specified in sub-paragraphs (a) to (h);

• “light rail services” means passenger railway services provided on or in respect of any of the following light rail systems known at the time these Regulations come into force as— Blackpool Tramway; Docklands Light Railway; Edinburgh Trams; Glasgow Subway; London Trams; London Underground; Manchester Metrolink; Nottingham Express Transit; Sheffield Supertram; Tyne & Wear Metro; West Midlands Metro;

• “train operation services” means— services for the carriage of passengers by railway by a person providing services— under a franchise agreement within the meaning of section 23(3) of the 1993 Act[^f00006]; under, or secured under, the duty in section 30(1) of the 1993 Act[^f00007]; under an agreement to which one of the persons listed in section 24A(4)(a) of the 1993 Act[^f00008] is a party; or under, or secured under, section 173(1) of the Greater London Authority Act 1999[^f00009]; or the refuelling of any locomotive or other rolling stock used for the services mentioned in sub-paragraph (a) by the person providing those services.

• (2) But services relating to the following are not passenger railway services for the purposes of these Regulations—

• (a) a train operation service using a railway which the Office of Rail and Road[^f00010] determines in accordance with regulation 2A(1) of the Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006[^f00011] is a heritage, museum or tourist railway that operates on its own network;

• (b) a train operation service that starts or terminates outside Great Britain.

• (3) In this regulation—

• (a) “infrastructure manager” has the same meaning as in regulation 3 of the Railways (Access, Management and Licensing of Railway Undertakings) Regulations 2016[^f00012] and includes any person responsible for the provision of all of the infrastructure services (within the meaning of these Regulations) on behalf of the infrastructure manager, but in applying the definition in regulation 3 of those Regulations, references to “railway” in that definition are to be treated as having the meaning given in sub-paragraph (d);

• (b) “services for the carriage of passengers by railway” has the same meaning as in Part 1 of the 1993 Act (see section 82(2) of that Act);

• (c) “locomotive”, “network”, “rolling stock”, “station”, “track” and “train” have the meanings given by section 83(1) of the 1993 Act, but in applying the definitions in that subsection, references to “railway” in the definitions are to be treated as having the meaning given in sub-paragraph (d);

• (d) “railway” has the meaning given by section 67(1) of the Transport and Works Act 1992[^f00013] but includes a “tramway” within the meaning of that section;

• (e) “reactive maintenance”, in relation to any thing, means maintenance which is necessary to ensure the availability, provision or operation of that thing (or any part of it).

Categories of relevant services: passenger railway services

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The following are relevant services for the purposes of section 234B(3) of the 1992 Act (power of the Secretary of State to define “relevant services” for the purposes of Part 5 of the 1992 Act)—

• (a) train operation services excluding light rail services (“category A services”);

• (b) infrastructure services excluding light rail services (“category B services”);

• (c) light rail services (“category C services”).

Minimum service levels: category A services

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• (1) The level of service for the purposes of enabling work notices under section 234C of the 1992 Act to be given in relation to strikes as respects category A services, is the provision of the train operation services necessary to operate the equivalent of 40% of the timetabled services during the strike.

• (2) For the purposes of this regulation a service is a timetabled service in relation to a person providing category A services if it is a service to be provided by that person which is specified in the National Rail Timetable as operating during the strike period, where a network or station is available to operate such a service.

• (3) In paragraph (2)—

• “National Rail Timetable” means the publication of that name most recently published by Network Rail relevant to the date of the strike[^f00014];

• “service specified in the National Rail Timetable” means each origin station to destination station train journey listed in the National Rail Timetable;

• “network” has the meaning given by section 83(1) of the 1993 Act.

• (4) In this regulation—

• “Network Rail” means Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, company registration number 02904587 whose registered address is Waterloo General Office, London, United Kingdom, SE1 8SW, and includes any successor in function to Network Rail which publishes the National Rail Timetable;

• “train” has the meaning that it has for the purposes of regulation 2.

Minimum service levels: category B services

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• (1) The level of service for the purposes of enabling work notices under section 234C of the 1992 Act to be given in relation to strikes as respects category B services, is the provision of those services between the hours of 06.00 and 22.00 on—

• (a) priority routes; and

• (b) any part of a network within a 5-mile radius of priority routes, which consists of loops, sidings and lines which connect priority routes to any of the following—

• (i) stabling facilities or depots for rolling stock;

• (ii) stabling facilities or depots for plant, equipment and machinery referred to in sub-paragraph (h) of the definition of “infrastructure services” (see regulation 2(1));

• (iii) freight terminals.

• (2) For the purposes of this regulation priority routes are—

• (a) any route in either direction between a station listed in the table in the Schedule in column 1 and a station listed in the corresponding entry in column 2, which is via any station listed in the corresponding entry in column 3 and which is not via any station listed in the corresponding entry in column 4;

• (b) the route in either direction over the “rail link” as that term is defined in section 56(1) of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act 1996[^f00015].

• (3) In this regulation, “network” and “rolling stock” have the meanings given by section 83(1) of the Railways Act 1993.

Minimum service levels: category C services

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• (1) The level of service for the purposes of enabling work notices under section 234C of the 1992 Act to be given in relation to strikes as respects category C services, is the provision of the light rail services necessary to operate the equivalent of 40% of the timetabled services during the strike affecting a light rail system.

• (2) For the purposes of this regulation—

• (a) a service is a timetabled service in relation to a person providing category C services if it is a train listed as operating during the strike period in the most recently published timetable for the light rail system concerned that was available on the day the notice of the strike under section 234A of the 1992 Act was received;

• (b) a timetable is published if it is made available to the public by the person who provides the train operation services on the light rail system[^f00016];

• (c) where there are different timetables applicable to different lines within a light rail system, the timetable means the aggregate of all the timetables for those different lines.

• (3) In this regulation—

• “light rail system” means whichever of the light rail systems specified in the definition of “light rail services” in regulation 2(1) to which a strike relates;

• “train” has the meaning that it has for the purposes of regulation 2.

SCHEDULE — Priority Routes

Signed

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Transport

Huw Merriman — Minister of State — Department for Transport — 7th December 2023

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

EXPLANATORY NOTE

These Regulations are made under section 234B and 234F of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (c. 52) (“the 1992 Act”). They specify, for the purposes of enabling work notices under section 234C of that Act to be given:

• (a) train operation services; and

• (b) railway infrastructure services,

as “relevant services”, and the levels of service in relation to strikes as respects those relevant services. Separate provision for the levels of service in relation to strikes on light rail systems is made.

Regulation 1(5) provides that these Regulations apply in relation to a strike where the strike ballot was held before the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 (c. 39) received Royal Assent or the notice of strike was received before these Regulations come into force. This is authorised by section 234B(2) of the 1992 Act.

A regulatory impact assessment has been published in relation to this instrument and is available from the Department for Transport, Great Minster House, 33 Horseferry Road, London SW1P 4DR, and is published alongside this instrument on https://www.legislation.gov.uk.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: 1992 c. 52; sections 234B and 234F were inserted by paragraph 2 of the Schedule to the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 (c. 39) (“the 2023 Act”).

[^f00002]: The Secretary of State has consulted on a draft of this Code of Practice. This consultation closed at 9.30am on 6th October 2023. Copies of the draft Code of Practice as consulted on are available here:https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/minimum-service-levels-code-of-practice-on-reasonable-steps

[^f00003]: Section 234A was inserted by section 21 of the Trade Union Reform and Employment Rights Act 1993 (c. 19). It was amended by paragraph 11 of Schedule 3 to the Employment Relations Act 1999 (c. 26), by section 25 of, and Schedule 2 to, the Employment Relations Act 2004 (c. 24), by section 8 of the Trade Union Act 2016 (c. 15) and by paragraph 5 of the Schedule to the 2023 Act.

[^f00004]: 20th July 2023 is the date on which the 2023 Act came into force. Section 234B(2) of the 1992 Act allows minimum service regulations to be framed so as to have effect in relation to any strike that takes place on or after the day on which the regulations come into force even if the date of the ballot in respect of the relevant strike was on or before the day on which the 2023 Act comes into force or the notice of the strike action under section 234A was given on or before the day on which the Regulations come into force .

[^f00005]: 1993 c. 43.

[^f00006]: The definition of “franchise agreement” was amended by S.I. 2018/631.

[^f00007]: Section 30 was substituted by section 212 of the Transport Act 2000 (c. 38). Subsection (1) was amended by paragraph 20 of Schedule 1 and Schedule 13 to the Railways Act 2005 (c. 14).

[^f00008]: Section 24A was inserted by paragraph 8 of Schedule 8 to the Deregulation Act 2015 (c. 20); section 24A(4)(a) was amended by paragraph 13(2)(a) of Schedule 5 to the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016 (c. 1).

[^f00009]: 1999 c. 29.

[^f00010]: The Office of Rail and Road is a body corporate established by section 15 of the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003 (c. 20). It was renamed by S.I. 2015/1682.

[^f00011]: S.I. 2006/599; regulation 2A was inserted by S.I. 2013/950 and amended by S.I. 2015/1682.

[^f00012]: S.I. 2016/645.

[^f00013]: 1992 c. 42.

[^f00014]: The National Rail Timetable is accessible at https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/the-timetable/electronic-national-rail-timetable/

[^f00015]: 1996 c. 61.

[^f00016]: The operators of the light rail systems specified in regulation 2(1) publish timetables on their websites.