Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the timetable of three weeks allocated by the Office of Rail and Road for a public consultation to scrutinise Network Rail’s strategic plan for the railways between 2019 and 2024.

The Office of Rail and Road’s (ORR) invitation for stakeholders to comment on Network Rail’s Strategic Business Plans was just one part of its two and a half year process to inform the regulatory framework for Control Period 6 (CP6). This is an interactive process, with stakeholders invited to engage at every stage. Additionally, ORR expressly required Network Rail to engage with its stakeholders as part of its development of the Strategic Business Plans. These plans have now been submitted to ORR for review and ORR invited high level feedback from stakeholders, including passenger representative groups, to inform its assessment of what Network Rail should deliver in CP6 and the funding that is required for this. ORR made clear that it was seeking high level and material points only at this stage. Furthermore, ORR will consult on its draft determination in June until the end of August, which will give stakeholders a further – and more formal - opportunity to comment and to do so in more detail.