Speeches

Lilian Greenwood – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the value was of support provided by (a) his Department and (b) Network Rail to the Technical Strategy Leadership Group in each year from 2010-11 to date.

Claire Perry

The Government, and Network Rail, to further their objective of supporting a safe, reliable and efficient rail network, engage with and support a broad range of stakeholders and initiatives across Government. These include the Technical Strategy Leadership Group; Rail Delivery Group Limited; the Planning Oversight Group; and the National Task Force.

The Department provided the following funding towards the Technical Strategy Leadership Group’s strategic research programme through a grant to RSSB which facilitates the group:

Year

DfT grant towards TSLG’s research programme (£m)

2010/11

1.25

2011/12

1.75

2012/13

3

2013/14

3.5

Network Rail does not provide direct financial support to the Technical Strategy Leadership Group.

Network Rail, between 10th August 2012 and 31st March 2014, paid £240,000 to Rail Delivery Group Limited in membership fees. For the year April 2014 – March 2015, Network Rail has paid or is due to pay £1,568,509 in membership fees. The increased fees paid by Network Rail in the most recent year are as a result of the Group assuming responsibility for policy formulation and communications on behalf of the rail industry. Network Rail provides staff to Rail Delivery Group Limited, for which it is due to charge the group £261,312.

The Planning Oversight Group is funded and supported by Rail Delivery Group Limited and does not receive direct financial support from the Department or Network Rail. The National Task Force does not have a budget, but those who attend are drawn from the various industry members.