Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Deighton on 17 December (HL3391), what proportion of the appraisal of a typical road and a rail investment proposal is based on (1) the aggregation of small time savings forecast to be of benefit to users, and (2) other effects such as the wider economic impacts and the various regeneration effects.

Transport investment decisions are supported with a 5-part business case. Appraisal information largely informs the economic case, which aims to provide a comprehensive overview of a proposal’s impacts. This includes a wide range of social and environmental factors, as well as time savings and economic impacts. The proportion of benefits falling in these different categories varies on a proposal-by-proposal basis and information on the proportion of benefits from (1) small time savings, and (2) other effects such as wider impacts, is not centrally held.