Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister of State for Transport of 17 March 2021, Official Report, column 448, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of Transport for the North's ability to charge £2.5 million of the costs that previously came from its core budget to the Northern Powerhouse Rail programme on improvements to the North’s rail network.

This decision has no impact on the Government’s ambitions to significantly improve the North’s rail network.