Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will commission Midlands Connect to conduct a review on adequacy of (a) the A49 and (b) strategic links to Wales.

The Department has no plans to do so: it is for Midlands Connect and its membership to determine its priorities, and other work that will review these matters is imminent. Highways England will review the current performance of the A49 and other strategic road links between Wales and England, and their future requirements, through the development of its Route Strategies. In addition, in his speech on 30 June, the Prime Minister announced a review “of all future road, rail, air and cross-sea links between our all four parts of the UK”. We expect to launch that review shortly.