Lord Snape Portrait

Lord Snape

Labour - Life peer

Became Member: 9th June 2004


National Security Strategy (Joint Committee)
5th Sep 2024 - 30th Jan 2025
National Security Strategy (Joint Committee)
19th Jan 2022 - 30th May 2024
National Plan for Sport and Recreation Committee
15th Oct 2020 - 24th Nov 2021
High Speed Rail (West Midlands - Crewe) Bill Select Committee (Lords)
30th Oct 2019 - 14th Oct 2020
Crossrail Bill
17th Jan 2008 - 26th Nov 2008
Procedure and Privileges Committee
2nd Dec 2004 - 8th Nov 2006
Lord Commissioner (HM Treasury) (Whip)
1st Jan 1977 - 1st Jan 1979
Assistant Whip (HM Treasury)
1st Jan 1975 - 1st Jan 1977


Division Voting information

During the current Parliament, Lord Snape has voted in 101 divisions, and never against the majority of their Party.
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Debates during the 2024 Parliament

Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.

Sparring Partners
Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Labour)
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
(18 debate interactions)
Lord Moylan (Conservative)
Shadow Minister (Transport)
(14 debate interactions)
Lord Gascoigne (Conservative)
(5 debate interactions)
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Department Debates
Department for Transport
(44 debate contributions)
Cabinet Office
(1 debate contributions)
HM Treasury
(1 debate contributions)
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View all Lord Snape's debates

Lords initiatives

These initiatives were driven by Lord Snape, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.


Lord Snape has not introduced any legislation before Parliament

Lord Snape has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting


Latest 10 Written Questions

(View all written questions)
Written Questions can be tabled by MPs and Lords to request specific information information on the work, policy and activities of a Government Department
24th Jul 2025
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the advantages to rail freight and passenger services of the proposed Ely Area Capacity Enhancement and associated improvements to Haughley junction; and what is the benefit-cost ratio for these schemes; and what are their current cost estimates.

The Ely Area Capacity Enhancement was assessed as having a Benefit Cost Ratio of 4.89 against a cost estimate of £489m at Outline Business Case stage, at the point the programme was paused in 2022.

We are focused on prioritising the schemes that will make the greatest difference for passengers and support economic growth as quickly as possible. The previous government had committed to a number of projects that were unfunded, including the EACE scheme.

Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
24th Jul 2025
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the benefit-cost ratio of the railway investment schemes for which funding has not been confirmed including (1) the York Area Capacity and Performance, (2) South West Rail Resilience Programme phase 5, (3) Midland Mainline Electrification phase 3, and (4) Peckham Rye Station Congestion.

Benefit Cost Ratios (BCRs) within the economic case are only one element of decision-making on schemes and should be considered alongside the other cases in the five case business model used in Government (strategic, economic, financial, commercial and management cases). BCRs evolve as a project is developed through different levels of maturity as well as with changing scope, costs and benefits profiles. Definitive BCRs are not available for these schemes as they are either at an early stage of development or for which existing analysis is not up to date and therefore not representative of current scheme assumptions.

Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
24th Jul 2025
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill on 14 July 2025 (HL Deb cols 1678–1681), whether they will publish for each of the road schemes for which funding was confirmed (1) the benefit-cost ration, (2) the latest cost estimate with the date of that cost estimate, and (3) the appraisal made under the Department for Transport’s capital spend review announced in July 2024.

(1) Detailed information on Strategic Road Network (SRN) schemes is available in the applications for planning consent, available on the Planning Inspectorate’s website. Benefit-cost ratio information for Major Road Network/Large Local Majors (MRN/LLM) schemes is part of the business case evidence and analysis which is provided by Local Authorities. This information is therefore available directly from them, once a scheme is approved at the Full Business Case (FBC) stage.

(2) Scheme costs for the SRN schemes will be confirmed as part of the setting of the third Road Investment Strategy, planned to be published by the end of March 2026. For MRN/LLM schemes, individual financial details cannot be provided ahead of assessing the Full Business Case, as doing so would jeopardise procurement exercises and contract negotiations.

(3) The Capital Review provided strategic advice to the Secretary of State. It did not appraise any specific projects, programmes or portfolios.

Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
24th Jul 2025
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to publish a clear transition plan for the transfer of retail responsibilities from train operating company retail websites to Great British Railways; and whether they will also publish a timetable for formal market consultation and tendering for the Great British Railways online rail ticket retailing.

Once Great British Railways (GBR) is established, it will retail online by consolidating individual train operators’ ticket websites. This will take place alongside a thriving private sector retail market, which will continue to play a key role in driving innovation and investment and encouraging more people to choose rail.

The Railways Bill consultation took place in the Spring. As part of this process, the Government consulted closely with the industry, the private sector, and wider stakeholders, including in relation to the future of the rail retail market. A formal update will be provided in due course.

Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
24th Jul 2025
To ask His Majesty's Government whether there will be an interim digital rail retail solution available before train operating company retail websites are turned off and before the Great British Railways online rail ticket retailing goes live.

Once Great British Railways (GBR) is established, it will retail online by consolidating individual train operators’ ticket websites. This will take place alongside a thriving private sector retail market, which will continue to play a key role in driving innovation and investment and encouraging more people to choose rail.

The Railways Bill consultation took place in the Spring. As part of this process, the Government consulted closely with the industry, the private sector, and wider stakeholders, including in relation to the future of the rail retail market. A formal update will be provided in due course.

Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
7th Oct 2024
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will allow Great British Railways to act as an online rail retailer.

Fares, ticketing, and retail will continue to be the responsibility of train operators until Great British Railways is established. Through future legislation, we will set out the role we expect Great British Railways to play in relation to operational aspects of the railway.

Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
7th Oct 2024
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will support the establishment of a Great British Railways online rail retailer to ensure a consolidated and transparent rail retail offer in addition to existing rail retailers.

Fares, ticketing, and retail will continue to be the responsibility of train operators until Great British Railways is established. Through future legislation, we will set out the role we expect Great British Railways to play in relation to operational aspects of the railway.

Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
7th Oct 2024
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have for establishing a rail miles loyalty scheme to attract more people to the railways and to end the fragmentation of rail services and any resulting confusion about tickets.

This Government has set out its ambition to simplify the ticketing system and drive innovation across the network. Affordability is one of our key objectives – so that prices are kept, wherever possible, at a point that works for both passengers and taxpayers.

Once established, I expect Great British Railways to consider the potential for loyalty schemes, as part of our intention to encourage the highest number of passengers to use our railways.

Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
24th Jul 2025
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the consequentials under the Barnett Formula for each of the devolved administrations resulting from approval of the Lower Thames Crossing.

The Block Grant Transparency publication breaks down all changes in the devolved governments’ block grant funding from the 2015 Spending Review up to and including Main Estimates 2023-24. Where funding for the Lower Thames Crossing has been allocated at a fiscal event or Estimates, the publication will confirm the total Barnett consequentials received by the devolved governments. The most recent report was published in July 2023 [1]. An updated report will be published in due course.

At spending reviews, the Barnett formula is applied to the overall change in a department’s settlement using the department’s comparability factor. This means Barnett consequentials generated at spending reviews in relation to the Lower Thames Crossing specifically cannot be determined.

For any future spending on the Lower Thames Crossing, Barnett consequentials will be confirmed when UK Government departmental budgets change.

[1] You can access this report via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/block-grant-transparency-july-2023

Lord Livermore
Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)