Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish a transport freight strategy on the move of freight from road to rail.

The Government strongly supports the modal shift of freight from road to rail to reduce congestion and carbon emissions from across the freight sector. This was clearly set out in the recently published Transport Decarbonisation Plan and Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail. Additionally, the Government is currently working with industry leaders from all modes to develop the Future of Freight strategy, a long-term strategic plan for the freight sector, which will include modal shift.

The Government continues to incentivise modal shift through the Mode Shift Revenue Support (MSRS) scheme, which supports the carriage of freight by rail and water on routes where road haulage has a financial advantage. In 2021/22, the Department allocated up to £20m for this grant scheme which removes the equivalent of around 900,000 HGV journeys off the road each year. This was recently increased by a further £500,000 to reduce the number of HGV journeys by an additional 29,000.

The Government has also committed to introducing a rail freight growth target which will help galvanise action across the sector and provide a common objective for industry collaboration. Further details about the growth target will be confirmed in due course and the Government will be working closely with industry partners to develop the target.