Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of using rail infrastructure to remove waste from the Lostock Northwich Incinerator to help reduce the number of heavy goods vehicles journeys made for that purpose.

Whilst the means by which industrial facilities convey materials is a commercial decision, DfT recognises the merits of using rail ahead of HGVs and is incentivising modal shift from road haulage to rail freight through our £20m Mode Shift Revenue Support Scheme, which helps to remove around 900,000 HGV journeys from our roads each year.