Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of what account Highways England have taken of the requirement in the National Planning Policy Framework to consider compensation for significant harm to biodiversity as a last resort and not the default choice in selecting the preferred corridor for the Oxford-Cambridge Expressway.

The Oxford Cambridge Expressway, as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project, falls under the provisions of the relevant National Policy Statement (NPS) rather than the National Planning Policy Framework. The Government will ensure that all assessments required under the National Networks NPS are undertaken at the appropriate stage.