To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking with the Ministry of Defence and the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to support the proposed movement of the A66 Trans-Pennine Project further north and away from local communities.

The Department continues to closely follow the development of the A66 Trans-Pennine project and is leading on the cross-Government stakeholder engagement. In parallel, National Highways regularly liaises with the local communities and stakeholders, such as the Ministry of Defence and Natural England (sponsored by DEFRA) on the project’s progress.

National Highways’ aim is to design the best scheme possible, taking into account all feedback and policy. Following feedback from the 2021 public consultation and from the recent targeted consultations with the local communities, National Highways has revisited a number of options, including moving sections of the Warcop road further north. This has resulted in the identification of the opportunity to dual the western section of the scheme directly to the north of the existing A66 rather than to the south as previously proposed (i.e. using the existing A66 largely as the westbound rather than the eastbound carriageway). There are a number of benefits to this and other changes. Further information can be found in the project’s March update brochure which is available on the scheme’s website.