Network Rail: Biodiversity
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the reprioritisation of vegetation management following the identification of protected species results on costs to Network Rail.
Answered by Simon Lightwood
Network Rail has not made specific estimates of the cost or time arising from identification of protected species. For Network Rail, such activities are embedded within wider project development, environmental mitigation and vegetation management processes, rather than recorded as discrete cost categories.
Licensing and survey requirements can influence project scheduling, particularly where seasonal survey constraints apply or where mitigation measures are required before works may proceed. However, the scale of any impacts on cost or programme varies significantly depending on the nature, location and timing of individual projects, and has not been quantified centrally. Effective project planning supports with limiting the impact of these requirements on project delivery.
Network Rail will always attempt to continue work using non-licensable techniques. Where this is not possible, licences will be applied for and work undertaken according to any condition presented in a granted licence.
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