Jerome Mayhew

The Great British Railways Transition Team (GBRTT) was set up as a temporary organisation under the previous government to design and transition towards Great British Railways, including building cross-industry capability. Total funding provided to GBRTT was: £12.9m in the financial year 2021-22; £52.7m in the financial year 2022-23, £41.3m in the financial year 2023-24; and £27.6m in the financial year 2024-25.

The Fares Ticketing and Retail (FTR) Programme to modernise ticketing and retail systems started at Spending Review 2021. The first year of the programme was 22/23. The Department spend £55.7 million in 22/23 and £66 million in 23/24 on the FTR programme.

Work is underway on the design of Great British Railways, including its governance. We will take learnings from elsewhere, including the Public Account Committee’s recent report on High Speed Two (HS2), to ensure GBR is set up to deliver better services for passengers and freight customers, and better value for money for taxpayers.

Once Great British Railways is established, it will retail online by consolidating individual train operators’ ticket websites. It will work 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, which launched on 18 February, will help us develop more detailed plans for GBR’s retail offer. We are consulting closely with industry, the private sector, and wider stakeholders.

The department is committed to reforming the train ticketing system and improving passenger experience. There has been substantial progress in extending Pay As You Go (PAYG) ticketing in the South East and progressing PAYG trials in Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. We will establish Great British Railways, ensuring fares and ticketing are managed in the interests of passengers and taxpayers.

In light of the Public Account Committee’s recent report on High Speed Two (HS2), this government’s priority is to deliver HS2 Phase 1 safely and to the lowest reasonable cost. We have set out urgent measures to get the programme back on track and have tasked Mark Wild, the new CEO of HS2 Ltd, with conducting a reset of the HS2 programme to provide a realistic budget and schedule and to deliver the remaining works.

As part of this reset, the government reinstated ministerial oversight of the project to ensure greater accountability and commissioned an independent review of the oversight of major transport infrastructure projects, which is investigating the effectiveness of forecasting and reporting of cost, schedule and benefits, as well as actions to deliver cost efficiencies.

The Department will update Parliament on the programme reset as it progresses.

The Department is not currently taking any specific steps with regards to tree planting as this a matter for National Highways and local highway authorities (for the strategic road network and local roads respectively).

The Department does, however, encourage local highway authorities to recognise the contribution that trees make to the economic, social and environmental well-being of communities, while National Highways is, as part of its efforts to deliver on environmental goals and achieve Net Zero Targets, aiming to plant at least 3 million trees by 2030 (in addition to the trees planted as ‘essential mitigation’ for projects) to provide landscape and biodiversity benefits and help lock up carbon.

The Department does not have plans to amend the Highways Act 1980 on this particular topic. The Department does, however, encourage local highway authorities to recognise the contribution that trees make to the economic, social and environmental well-being of communities, while National Highways is, as part of its efforts to deliver on environmental goals and achieve Net Zero Targets, aiming to plant at least 3 million trees by 2030 (in addition to the trees planted as ‘essential mitigation’ for projects), to provide landscape and biodiversity benefits and help lock up carbon.

The Rail Sector Transformation Programme, which includes the establishment of Great British Railways, is part of the Government Major Projects Portfolio, with Departmental governance overseeing delivery.

Decisions regarding ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper services are a devolved matter for the Scottish Government. My officials engage closely with devolved counterparts on their experiences of nationalisation.

Great British Railways’ new passenger-focused culture will ensure passengers are at the heart of everything it does. It will be operationally independent of, but accountable to, the Secretary of State, as well as to the UK and devolved Parliaments, supported by the Office for Rail and Road and a new passenger watchdog, the Passenger Standards Authority. We will be consulting on our proposals for the legislation that will establish GBR as an arm’s length body, in due course.

A new Public Ownership Programme Directorate has been established in the Department to deliver the programme to transition passenger services into public ownership over the next three years. The Directorate currently has 34 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees who work across the entire public ownership programme, not just South Western Railway. Other capabilities from across the Department, as well as external expertise, will be drawn upon as required to support the transfer of all ten operators transferring to public ownership, starting with South Western Railway in May 2025.

We do not hold this information; the Rail Delivery Group’s (RDG’s) structure reflects the role the organisation has played as a means of facilitating collaboration and delivering whole-system outcomes within a multi-operator sector. As a Non-Departmental Public Body, Network Rail strictly adheres to Cabinet Office rules which prohibit attendance at party conferences and the use of consultancies for lobbying activity.

The Secretary of State has not put any restrictions on RDG from attending party political conferences, international railway meetings overseas and other lobbying activities.

Furthermore, we have not carried out a value for money assessment in relation to RDG and Network Rail engaging public affairs agencies for lobbying purposes. RDG undertakes and provides a wide range of critical functions across the rail industry which deliver high value for money for the industry.

Network Rail has a profitable international consultancy arm which involves international travel and conferences; and also necessarily participates in international activities as railway standards and the railway supply chain are both international.

The Rail Delivery Group will be overtaken by GBR in due course which will be an arms-length body of the Department for Transport and therefore subject to Cabinet Office rules.

We do not hold this information; the Rail Delivery Group’s (RDG’s) structure reflects the role the organisation has played as a means of facilitating collaboration and delivering whole-system outcomes within a multi-operator sector. As a Non-Departmental Public Body, Network Rail strictly adheres to Cabinet Office rules which prohibit attendance at party conferences and the use of consultancies for lobbying activity.

The Secretary of State has not put any restrictions on RDG from attending party political conferences, international railway meetings overseas and other lobbying activities.

Furthermore, we have not carried out a value for money assessment in relation to RDG and Network Rail engaging public affairs agencies for lobbying purposes. RDG undertakes and provides a wide range of critical functions across the rail industry which deliver high value for money for the industry.

Network Rail has a profitable international consultancy arm which involves international travel and conferences; and also necessarily participates in international activities as railway standards and the railway supply chain are both international.

The Rail Delivery Group will be overtaken by GBR in due course which will be an arms-length body of the Department for Transport and therefore subject to Cabinet Office rules.

We do not hold this information; the Rail Delivery Group’s (RDG’s) structure reflects the role the organisation has played as a means of facilitating collaboration and delivering whole-system outcomes within a multi-operator sector. As a Non-Departmental Public Body, Network Rail strictly adheres to Cabinet Office rules which prohibit attendance at party conferences and the use of consultancies for lobbying activity.

The Secretary of State has not put any restrictions on RDG from attending party political conferences, international railway meetings overseas and other lobbying activities.

Furthermore, we have not carried out a value for money assessment in relation to RDG and Network Rail engaging public affairs agencies for lobbying purposes. RDG undertakes and provides a wide range of critical functions across the rail industry which deliver high value for money for the industry.

Network Rail has a profitable international consultancy arm which involves international travel and conferences; and also necessarily participates in international activities as railway standards and the railway supply chain are both international.

The Rail Delivery Group will be overtaken by GBR in due course which will be an arms-length body of the Department for Transport and therefore subject to Cabinet Office rules.

The A5 Dodwells to Longshoot scheme was cancelled in July 2021 due to the scheme being poor value for money. The M42 Junction 6 scheme is in construction and is forecast to complete in the year 2026/27.

The A5 Dodwells to Longshoot scheme was cancelled in July 2021 due to the scheme being poor value for money. The M42 Junction 6 scheme is in construction and is forecast to complete in the year 2026/27.

The Department’s transport business case guidance forms the basis of our assessment of transport investment projects. It follows HM Treasury’s Green Book five case model which is the government’s best practice model for spending and investment decisions. The guidance is kept under review and is used alongside the well-established Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG). TAG is kept under constant review in line with good practice, the latest evidence, and method enhancements.

The Department for Transport is made up of seven groups led by a Director General or Permanent Secretary, which are subdivided into directorates and divisions. Organisational structures are always kept under review to best deliver the Department’s responsibilities. As of 10 December 2024, there have been no major organisational restructures which have resulted in substantive changes to the membership, scope or responsibilities of any of the groups since 4 July 2024.

The Department for Transport is made up of seven groups led by a Director General or Permanent Secretary, which are subdivided into directorates and divisions. Organisational structures are always kept under review to best deliver the Department’s responsibilities. As of 10 December 2024, there have been no major organisational restructures which have resulted in substantive changes to the membership, scope or responsibilities of any of the groups since 4 July 2024.

The Department for Transport is made up of seven groups led by a Director General or Permanent Secretary, which are subdivided into directorates and divisions. Organisational structures are always kept under review to best deliver the Department’s responsibilities. As of 10 December 2024, there have been no major organisational restructures which have resulted in substantive changes to the membership, scope or responsibilities of any of the groups since 4 July 2024.

The Department for Transport is made up of seven groups led by a Director General or Permanent Secretary, which are subdivided into directorates and divisions. Organisational structures are always kept under review to best deliver the Department’s responsibilities. As of 10 December 2024, there have been no major organisational restructures which have resulted in substantive changes to the membership, scope or responsibilities of any of the groups since 4 July 2024.