Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether Ministers in his Department approved or were consulted on the instruction made in late March 2015 that Network Rail should undertake a fuller assessment of its emerging cost estimates.

At the end of March, my officials commissioned Network Rail, the ORR, and DfT to review the whole CP5 portfolio and provide a robust estimate of costs. Ministers were aware of the need to undertake a fuller assessment.