Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the capacity of his Department to (a) develop, (b) evaluate and (c) award market-led proposals to enhance the railway; and how many of his Department's officials have been allocated to work relating to those proposals.

The Guidance for Rail Market-led Proposals published in March last year is clear that the Department’s role is not to develop these proposals, as they are market-led. The Department has the capacity to evaluate rail market-led proposals in line with the guidance. On 5 December 2018 the Department responded to all promoters who had submitted a market-led proposal in response to the March 2018 Call for Ideas, and my officials are continuing to engage with those promoters whose proposals were evaluated to have the potential to be financially credible without government support.