Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the cost implications of transferring research and advisory functions from Network Rail to Great British Railways.

Network Rail and its functions will become a foundational part of Great British Railways (GBR) as it is stood up. It is therefore unlikely that there will be significant costs in transferring functions currently within Network Rail into GBR. However, detailed design and implementation work is currently underway and no assessment has yet been made of the specific cost implications of transferring research and advisory functions from Network Rail to GBR.