Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether (a) his Department or (b) an arms-length body of his Department has authorised the sale of any land containing disused rail lines since May 2010.

My Department does not hold records of all such land sales by its arm’s length bodies, however It is likely that, in the period since May 2010, Network Rail, London Continental Railways (LCR), BRB (Residuary) Ltd (BRBR) (dissolved in September 2013), and Highways England (formerly the Highways Agency) all sold land containing parts of disused rail lines. Compiling a record of all sales would involve incurring disproportionate costs.