Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the level of debt sustained by Network Rail.

As reported in their Annual Report and Accounts 2020, Network Rail has £54.6bn of historical debt, which is an increase on the previous year’s level (of £54.1bn) due to increases in the valuation of RPI-linked bonds.

Network Rail have been restricted from raising any further commercial debt since they were reclassified to the public sector in 2014. Since the start of Railway Control Period 6 in April 2019, the Department has chosen to provide funding for operating, maintaining and enhancing the railway through grant rather than loan funding. The level of debt is therefore not expected to rise from its current level.