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.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which rail infrastructure schemes on the Great East Main Line she will plans to implement; and which she has cancelled since July 2024.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Secretary of State updated Parliament on the 7th of July regarding those rail infrastructure schemes which will progress following completion of the Spending Review. We’re prioritising the schemes that will make the greatest difference for passengers and freight and drive economic growth as soon as possible. The previous government had announced a number of schemes that were unfunded. The new station at Beaulieu Park is due to open on the Great Eastern Main Line by the end of this year.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to her statement of 8 July 2025 on Road and Rail Projects, column 815, what is the forecast annual expenditure for each of the 50 schemes in each of the next ten financial years; and what is the total estimated cost of each scheme.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
We are committed to providing transparency about our investment plans, to provide certainty and stability for industry and other stakeholders.
For schemes on the Strategic Road Network (SRN) and Major Road Network (MRN), £24 billion of capital funding is being provided between 2026-27 and 2029-30 to maintain and improve motorways and local roads. Scheme costs for the SRN schemes will be confirmed as part of the setting of the third Road Investment Strategy, planned to be published by the end of March 2026.
For MRN schemes, individual financial details cannot be provided as doing so would jeopardise procurement exercises and contract negotiations.
All rail projects referenced in the Secretary of State’s statement are fully funded from the £10.2bn allocated to enhancements over 2026/27-2029/30. We expect to provide further detail on scheme profiles in due course.
The National Infrastructure and Services Transformation Authority (NISTA) has also now published a first version of the Infrastructure Pipeline. All of the projects referred to in the Secretary of State’s statement are included in the Pipeline, although at a portfolio level. The Pipeline will be updated and improved every six months.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding for maintenance of the A12 will be made available in the (a) current and (b) next five financial years; and what proportion of that funding will be allocated for maintenance between junctions 19 and 25.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
In total, over £5.6 million has been earmarked for improving various aspects of the A12 in the current financial year (2025/26) and about 7% of this is designated for works around junctions 19 to 25.
It is too early to set out what funding for maintenance of the A12 will be earmarked in the next five financial years (2026/27-2030/31). Over this period, National Highways will maintain a proactive approach to monitoring the condition and performance of the A12. Key activities will include weekly safety inspections to ensure the immediate safety of the network, annual visual condition inspections and machine-based surveys which will assist with identifying asset renewal needs. These activities form part of National Highways’ ongoing asset management strategy to ensure the A12 continues to meet performance standards and remains fit for purpose throughout the third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3) period.
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 UIN 66153 on Housing: Construction, if she will publish (a) the evidence, (b) criteria and (c) methodology used to assess the A12 widening scheme; and the scoring outcome of the A12 widening scheme against that criteria.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
As set out in the answer of 14 July 2025 to Question UIN 66153, this Government inherited a series of commitments that could not be afforded and the decision not to progress the A12 (Chelmsford to A120) Widening Scheme was based on evidence assessed against a wide range of criteria including housing growth impacts and in line with the HM Treasury Green Book and the Department’s Transport Analysis Guidance.
As examples of evidence, the Rt Hon Member for Witham has advocated for the A12 Widening Scheme in the House and in correspondence over many years and detailed information about the Scheme was published on the Planning Inspectorate’s website, available here: https://national-infrastructure-consenting.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/projects/TR010060.