Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2025 to Question 66157 on A12: Repairs and Maintenance, what resources she has made available for small-scale interventions on the A12.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The necessary resources will be made available for the Department to continue to work with National Highways and relevant partners to explore what small-scale interventions could potentially address issues on the A12.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 14 July 2025 to Question 66153 on Housing: Construction, if she will publish the analysis of the A12 widening scheme conducted in accordance with the HMT Treasury Green Book and her Department’s Transport Analysis Guidance.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Detailed information on the analysis of the A12 widening scheme, conducted in accordance with the HMT Treasury Green Book and the Department’s Transport Analysis Guidance, was published on the Planning Inspectorate’s website, available here: https://national-infrastructure consenting.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/projects/TR010060.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, If she has undertaken an assessment of the net present value using the Green Book methodology of (a) the A12 Widening Scheme, (b) each of the infrastructure schemes referenced in her Oral Statement of 8 July 2025 on Road and Rail Projects, Official Report, columns 815-837 and (c) proposals for the A120 Dualling Scheme.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department uses a five-dimension business case to inform decisions about transport investments, in line with the HM Treasury Green Book and the Department’s Transport Analysis Guidance. Within that, the Department considers benefits and costs in present value terms, as part of the overall business case. This includes strategic road schemes.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2025 to Question 66155 on A12: Repairs and Maintenance, how much funding she has allocated for the costs of ending the A12 widening scheme.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
National Highways is moving to end the A12 widening scheme and will publish details on costs incurred in its Annual Report and Accounts in due course. The costs will be funded from resources made available to National Highways in the usual way.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2025 to Question 66154 on A12: Repairs and Maintenance, if she will publish the evidence she assessed when making the decision to cancel the A12 widening scheme.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
There are no plans to publish officials’ advice to Ministers, as has been the usual practice of successive administrations, including the one the Rt Hon Lady served in.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 23 July 2025 to Question 67867 on East Anglia Rail Franchise: Nationalisation, which stakeholders she has (a) consulted and (b) engaged with in relation to the planned Services Agreement; and on what date the Services Agreement will be published.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
A range of stakeholders were consulted and engaged in the design of the Services Agreement template, including train operating companies, DFT Operator Limited, Network Rail and passenger representatives. A Services Agreement is signed by the Department, DFT Operator Limited and public sector operator as services transfer into public ownership, tailored to each public sector operator. Services Agreements will be made available on the Department for Transport’s website in due course.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 21 July 2025 to Question 67866 on A12: Repairs and Maintenance, when she plans to announce her Department's spending plans for the 2026-27 financial year.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department’s spending plans will be published in the Main Estimates. For the Strategic Road Network, the Department intends to announce its spending plans for the 2026-27 financial year in the third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3), which is expected to be published by the end of Spring 2026. National Highways is also expected to publish its Delivery Plan for the RIS3 period in 2026.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Pursuant to her Department’s Annual Account 2024/25, with reference to page 19, (a) what funding she will be providing to each Mayoral Combined Authority in each financial year through to 2029/30, (b) what funding she is making available to the proposed Greater Essex Mayoral Combined County Authority in each financial year through to 2029/30, and (c) what her forecast is of the annual reduction in support for the services covered by Train Operating Companies in each year of the Spending Review period; with reference to page 19, what her estimate is of the increased levels of ridership required to cover the planned reductions in her Department’s support for Train Operating Companies in each year of the Spending Review period; and with reference to page 348, if she will publish the lines of expenditure incurred in the estimated £250 million to be written off in respect of the cancellation of the A12 Widening Scheme and the A47 dualling scheme.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
On (a) and (b), at Spending Review 2025 ("SR25"), the government announced £15.6bn of funding for Transport for City Region settlements for 9 eligible Mayoral Combined Authorities ("MCAs") from 2027-28 to 2031-32. This funding builds on the funding allocated to eligible MCAs for years 2022-23 to 2026-27 via the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS). Mayoral allocations for TCR were published on gov.uk. Allocations for the final year of CRSTS (2026/27) are being confirmed with Ministers in the upcoming months.
For MCAs and other local areas outside of CRSTS/TCR, the department secured £2.3bn of funding for the Local Transport Grant (LTG) at SR25 and multi-year allocations and formula methodology were published on gov.uk. These allocations were calculated using a formula based on population and deprivation. Allocations were published based on the current Local Authority structure. Essex’s Local Transport Authority’s allocation for LTG is summarised in table 1 below. When it is established as a new MCAs, their transport funding will compromise the total of their constituent authorities. Table 1 includes the LTG allocations for other MCAs, a full breakdown of all areas can be found on Gov.uk.
Essex, and other areas, will also be eligible for other local transport grants and funding secured at SR25 such as funding for Buses, Highways Maintenance, Active Travel and Electric vehicle infrastructure. DfT Ministers are considering advice on these funds, and how they will be allocated across Local areas. Allocations will be released once Ministerial decisions have been made.
Table 1 – LTG allocations for Essex LTA and MCAs in receipt of LTG (full local allocations can be found on gov.uk).
Local Area | LTG Allocation | 2026/27 | 2027/28 | 2028/29 | 2029/30 | Total |
Essex | Capital | 6.77 | 10.325 | 14.149 | 17.973 | 49.217 |
Resource | 1.08 | 1.08 | 1.08 | n/a | 3.24 | |
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Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority | Capital | 4.973 | 8.03 | 11.004 | 13.979 | 37.986 |
Resource | 0.819 | 0.819 | 0.819 | n/a | 2.457 | |
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Devon and Torbay Combined County Authority | Capital | 5.043 | 8.725 | 11.957 | 15.189 | 40.914 |
Resource | 0.853 | 0.853 | 0.853 | n/a | 2.559 | |
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Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority | Capital | 31.879 | 36.854 | 41.075 | 45.295 | 155.103 |
Resource | 1.063 | 2.259 | 2.263 | 5.585 | ||
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Hull & East Yorkshire Combined Authority | Capital | 19.895 | 22.879 | 25.538 | 28.197 | 96.509 |
Resource | 0.634 | 1.403 | 1.407 | 3.444 | ||
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Lancashire Combined County Authority | Capital | 44.998 | 50.844 | 56.676 | 62.507 | 215.025 |
Resource | 1.349 | 3.117 | 3.123 | 7.589 | ||
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York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority | Capital | 20.407 | 22.072 | 24.529 | 26.985 | 93.993 |
Resource | 0.767 | 1.353 | 1.352 | 3.472 |
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, If she will publish the details of the construction phase funding for the A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening scheme considered by her Department’s Investment Portfolio and Delivery Committee in 2023/24 and 2024/25.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department has no plans to publish papers considered by its Investment, Portfolio and Delivery Committee, as has been the usual practice of successive administrations.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on what date she plans to bring the Greater Anglia franchise under public ownership; and when she plans to publish her (a) business plan for the management of the Greater Anglia franchise, (b) income and expenditure forecasts for the Greater Anglia franchise for each of the next five years, (c) plans for ticket pricing for each of the next five years, (d) plans for ticket office opening hours for each of the next five years, (e) the performance standards and targets for each of the next five years and (f) funding plans for (i) railway stations, (ii) tracks and signalling and (iii) rolling stock for each of the next five years.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Greater Anglia’s services will transfer into public ownership on 12 October 2025. A Services Agreement setting out Secretary of State requirements will be put in place for the new publicly owned operator, and this will be made available on the Department for Transport’s website in due course. The Services Agreement will require train operating companies to publish information on targets, outturn performance, and the ongoing development of the customer offer on a regular basis at stations, on their website and in other formats on request.