Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent progress his Department has made on implementing the A66 Northern Trans-Pennine scheme.

National Highways is responsible for delivering the A66 Northern Trans-Pennine scheme. They submitted an Application for a Development Consent Order for this scheme in June 2022. The six-month examination of this Application recently ended on 29 May. The Examining Authority now has up to three months to provide the Secretary of State with their recommendation as to whether the Development Consent Order should be granted consent. The Secretary of State then has three months to make the final decision.