Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the choice of preferred route for the Oxford-Cambridge Expressway should follow the ecological mitigation hierarchy used (a) by local authorities in preparing local plans and (b) in deciding planning applications in line with the National Planning Policy Framework.

The Government take the potential environmental impacts of the Oxford Cambridge Expressway seriously. The National Planning Policy Framework is designed for the local authority-led Town and Country Planning system, which usually deals with much smaller developments. As a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project, the Oxford Cambridge Expressway must comply with the (more extensive) requirements of the National Networks National Policy Statement, which are specifically designed to ensure that the impacts of major infrastructure are properly considered and mitigated.