Consultation on a draft Rail Ombudsman operating model

Consultation outcome

In June 2022 we launched a consultation on proposals for an operating model for the future Rail Ombudsman, which specified:

• the functions it will perform and to what standard,
• the way it will be constituted, governed and held to account; and
• proposed licence modifications required as part of the ORR sponsorship process. 

We have now published our decision document which sets out: 

• a high-level summary of the views submitted by respondents,
• ORR's response,
• any changes we have made to the final operating model and our decisions on its requirements,
• proposals for licence modification, and
• our updated equality impact assessment.

Alongside this we have also published the responses to our June 2022 consultation. Stakeholders were broadly supportive of the proposals and the feedback we received has been used to inform and further refine our Ombudsman operating model and licence modification proposals.   

Next steps

On 20 October 2022 we began a statutory consultation to seek licence holders’ consent to amend their relevant station and passenger licences and Statement of National Regulatory provisions (SNRP) to facilitate the transition to an ORR procured ombudsman scheme. This consultation will close on 21 November 2022.  

This broad stakeholder support for our operating model also enables us to proceed to a competitive tender process in autumn 2022 to procure a provider of the Rail Ombudsman service.