Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what internal assessment Network Rail is undertaking of its capacity to deliver major enhancement projects.

Network Rail has been asked by the Secretary of State to set out its proposals to re-plan its Control Period 5 Enhancements Plan. In developing its response, Network Rail is undertaking a comprehensive review of its capability and that of its industry partners to deliver the enhancement portfolio. This includes a review of the current status of all its major programmes and their readiness to deliver to schedule and cost, an overall review of whole industry critical resources focusing particular on signalling resources, a review of overall network access requirements and its strategy for achieving required planning consents. These factors have been identified as key to the current deliverability challenge Network Rail faces. Network Rail is involving a number of independent expert organisations in contributing to these reviews as well as using independent experts to validate it findings before making recommendations to the Secretary of State.