Member

On Amendment 72 from the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, where research relates to infrastructure funding, this will continue to be allocated to the five-year infrastructure budget, similar to Network Rail today. However, research and development schemes that are not related to infrastructure activities tend to be funded by the Government on a shorter-term basis according to need. One example of this is the First of a Kind competition, which aims to address persistent issues on the railway, such as safety concerns, service reliability or anti-social behaviour. This year, applicants will put forward ideas to help deliver major projects on time and to budget, improve the passenger service performance and reduce the industry’s impact on the environment, with previous winners applauded for creating tech-led solutions. This kind of scheme is suited to one-off timescales which can move quickly to secure outside investment and ensure innovation, and avoid funds like this being allocated in the same way as essential operational funding, which is clearly different. It would not work well to force this type of research and development into set funding periods.