are known to stay there. the islamist militant group al shabab says it targeted the villa rose which is close to the presidential palace. the state minister for the environment has posted on social media that he had survived the attack. there are unconfirmed reports that another minister was injured. we will bring you more as we know more about the casualties, those numbers are not yet clear. here, the transport secretary has been talking about the industrial dispute on the railways which has led to more strikes scheduled for next month. mark harper said there had to be reforms to the rail system to free up money for a pay offer for workers and warned there wasn t a bottomless pit of taxpayers money to throw at the problem. mark harper spoke earlier today with laura kuenssberg. the negotiations are absolutely between the trade unions and the train operating companies and network rail. and i m not getting involved in those detailed negotiations. but i do think i have a responsibi
the drivers, the signallers. just how complicated a picture is this? it is quite complicated and some of thatis it is quite complicated and some of that is actually quite simple. the signallers, who are a fair chunk, got a settlement lastjune but it cannot be implemented until all the maintenance work has been done. let s come back to mr harper in a minute, shall be, but to answer your question the reforms in the simplest senseis question the reforms in the simplest sense is about the technology and the railway moving with the times and using the best modern equipment. i had it in my industry, when i used to do an interview like this they would be half a dozen team of people summer. now it is not the case. the railway has been quite slow in terms of getting reforms through. it can be very high tech cameras on trains which do inspections of the train, which do inspections of the train, which means that you don t need as many on the train. which is safer because they are not in harms way
companies and network rail. quite a lot of work has been done. and i want to try and work with both sides to try to help them get that over the line. but will you.? on behalf of the travelling public and the taxpayer. but as the secretary of state, will you give the companies flexibility to make offers, to have a proper backwards and forwards? because that is what has to happen here, isn t it? you have to budge so the companies can then budge. what has to happen is we have to agree on a set of reforms. it s the reforms that free up the savings that then unlock the ability for the companies to make an offer to the trade unions on pay. i m joined now by rail expert and managing editor of rail magazine, nigel harris. we have the transport secretary saying it is very important that reforms happen before any conversation about the pay can be had. just talk to us about what reforms he is talking about and how controversial they might be. because there is a number of disputes but also a numbe
and obviously there will be a discussion to be had about the balance of that. but it s getting those reforms agreed, that frees up some resources and that will enable network rail and the train operating companies to make a pay offer to the people who work in the industry. and that s your ambition for what should happen. but there is a big question about how that could happen. now, we ve just heard from frances o grady, and also the rmt union have been saying that, too. they feel the train operators have not been able to make offers to them because the government hasn t given them the flexibility to do so. do you dispute that? no, look, i haven t blocked anything and it s not in my interest to block anything. did your predecessor block anything? but there s a thing that has to be done here, has to be done here, which is you need the reforms agreed. because it s the reforms being agreed that free up the savings that can then be used to make a pay offer. so both of those things have to h