Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what type of body is Transport for the North; who made the decision to set it up; what are its terms of reference; whether it has a constitution; what form its controlling body takes, how its composition was decided, and who are its members; whether any members of the controlling body other than the chairman receive remuneration, and if so, on what basis and how much; what is its annual budget, and from which funds that budget is derived; how many staff are employed to work for it; where those staff are based; and what property it occupies, and on what basis.

Transport for the North (TfN) membership is drawn from the North’s combined and local authority, and Local Enterprise Partnership leaders working in a unique partnership with the Government, Network Rail, Highways England and HS2 Ltd. It was established by the Government with Northern leaders in October 2014. The TfN governance framework is outlined in the Principles for Governing the Relationship between Transport for the North (TfN) and the Department for Transport (DfT) document, which is attached and is available on the TfN website. The Chairman of TfN is the only Partnership Board member receiving remuneration for this role. Building on the summer budget commitment to provide funding to TfN, the Government is committing a total of £50m (£10m per annum) over this parliament, enabling TfN to build its capacity and capability to recruit the staff it needs and get on with planning better rail and roads to deliver the Government’s ambitious programme to create a Northern Powerhouse.This is in addition to the £8.5m already provided by DfT and up to £4m committed by the members of TfN. Following the recent appointments of the Chief Executive and Chairman, the recruitment process for both permanent and temporary staff is now underway. TfN is based at temporary premises in Manchester until a permanent location is agreed.