Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the timetable is for the paused parts of the Great Western electrification to be resumed; and if he will make a statement.

The Government’s Statement of Funds Available for the railway for Control Period 6 (covering the years 2019-2024) was set out in October 2017. The Statement of Funds Available includes funding to continue to take forward the enhancements that were deferred from Control Period 5, including the schemes which were deferred on the Great Western route.

In line with the new process for enhancements these schemes will continue to be subject to ongoing consideration to ensure they deliver the best results for both rail users and taxpayers.

These enhancements will be taken forward through a new process in the form of a pipeline, designed to ensure investment best addresses the needs of passengers and freight, and that funding commitments appropriately reflect the stage of development of enhancements. Under this process, we will only commit enhancements for development, design, or delivery when they have been properly worked through, to avoid the problems of the past, where schemes were committed to too early.

We will be setting out more details on the new enhancements process shortly.