Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Davies of Gower on 22 November (HL278), whether the Prime Minister's commitment to deliver new rail schemes "far more quickly" than the scrapped Manchester leg of HS2, as set out in their Network North published in October (CP 946), applies to the lines from (1) Burton to Leicester, and (2) Stoke to Leek.

Under the Network North announcement, the Government has committed to delivering both schemes, both of which could be delivered quicker than Phase 2b of HS2 which was due to complete in 2041.