Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Department for Transport's Acceleration Unit, what progress has been made to (1) speed up the delivery of transport infrastructure projects, (2) implement policy initiatives and programmes in relation to the Government's agenda, and (3) publish the total expenditure to date of the Acceleration Unit.

(1) What progress has been made to speed up the delivery of transport infrastructure projects?

The Acceleration Unit was set up in 2020 to focus on unblocking project delivery and identifying ways to speed up the realisation of benefits from the Department for Transport’s infrastructure portfolio. During its time, the Acceleration Unit worked closely with sponsors, delivery bodies, HM Treasury and others to deliver against this agenda, supporting Project Speed and other acceleration opportunities. This has resulted in an increased focus in our delivery bodies and sponsor teams on both project specific barriers, as well as ways of speeding up our overall delivery systems.

The Department has now reorganised the way it delivers the work of the Acceleration Unit to reflect current circumstances and to best meet its needs. This builds on the success of what the Acceleration Unit has achieved and will allow the Department to continue to improve programme delivery.

(2) What progress has been made to implement policy initiatives and programmes in relation to the Government's agenda?

The Department continues to develop and implement policies to deliver the Government's agenda and is working with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on planning reforms. On the 23 February this year the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) Action Plan was published, which sets out how these reforms will be delivered across government. The reforms will provide greater clarity and certainty to all stakeholders who use the NSIP system, making the NSIP consenting process better, faster, greener, fairer and more resilient, so that it can deliver against government's ambitions for major infrastructure.

(3) publish the total expenditure to date of the Acceleration Unit

The total expenditure of the Acceleration Unit was £1,270,824. This figure includes all costs related to the Unit, such as staff salaries, consultancy support, and business travel and subsistence. The figure represents the total for financial years 20/21 up to and including 23/24. The costs for the Acceleration Unit have been met from existing Civil Service budgets.