Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 13 October 2014 to Question 208974, whether cost benefit ratios are conducted for any Highways Agency schemes in the planning or scoping phase.

In the early scoping phase of work, the required strategic outline business case does not require the production of benefit cost ratios.

In the later scoping and planning phases, as schemes develop the Outline Business Case (known as the Options and Development Phases in the Highways Agency Project Lifecycle Framework), the Highways Agency then follows the relevant and appropriate sections of the Department for Transport’s Transport Analysis Guidance in order to determine the cost benefit ratio.