Transparency data

East West Rail programme CS1 SRO appointment letter

Updated 26 March 2025

Sender

Bernadette Kelly, Permanent Secretary of the Department for Transport

Nick Smallwood, Chief Executive Officer of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority

Recipient

Jodie Lofthouse, Senior Responsible Owner for East West Rail Connection Stage 1

Letter

6 May 2024

Dear Jodie,

Subject: appointment as Senior Responsible Owner for East West Rail (EWR) Connection Stage 1 (CS1)

We are writing to confirm your appointment as senior responsible owner (SRO) of EWR CS1 with effect from 6 May 2024. This letter sets out your responsibilities and the support you can expect from your department and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.

As SRO, you are directly accountable to the Director, Rail Infrastructure Central under the oversight of the Permanent Secretary as accounting officer for the Department of Transport (DfT) and Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill, Minister of State.

EWR CS1 forms part of the East West Rail Programme under the oversight of the investment, portfolio and delivery committee (IPDC) and is included in the government major projects portfolio (GMPP).

You have personal responsibility for the delivery of EWR CS1 and will be held accountable for the delivery of its objectives, policy intent and outcomes that these fit with the wider East West Rail Programme. This encompasses securing and protecting its vision, ensuring that it is governed responsibly, reported on honestly and escalated appropriately and for influencing the context, culture, and operating environment of EWR CS1. You are also responsible for ensuring the ongoing viability of EWR CS1 and recommending its pause or termination if appropriate. Where issues arise that you are unable to resolve, you are responsible for escalating these to the IPDC.

You remain accountable to ministers, as set out in the Civil Service Code, and should deliver the project in accordance with the objectives and policy intent as set by ministers.

In addition to your internal accountabilities, SROs for GMPP projects and programmes are personally accountable to Parliamentary Select Committees. This means that, from the date of this letter, you will be held personally accountable to and could be called by select committees to account for and explain the decisions and actions you have taken to deliver EWR CS1.

It is important to be clear that your accountability relates only to implementation, within the agreed terms in this letter; it will remain for the Minister to account for the relevant policy decisions and development.

More information on this is set out in Giving evidence to select committees – guidance for civil servants, sometimes known as the Osmotherly Rules. Information on the roles and responsibilities of the SRO are detailed in the Infrastructure and Project Authority’s guidance on the role of the senior responsible owner. You are expected to run your project in accordance with the government functional standard for project delivery, the other functional standards as applicable to this programme and the requirements of the Government Project Delivery Framework.

You should also make yourself familiar with the guidance and requirements for project delivery as set by DfT’s project delivery and portfolio directorate.

Time commitment and tenure

This role will require 50% of your time to enable effective delivery of the role and execute your responsibilities in full.

You are required to undertake this role until 6 months following achievement of CS1 full service (planned for 1 December 2025). Progress towards this will be reflected in your personal objectives. Any changes to the agreed time commitment or tenure of the role, as set out above, will require both departmental and Infrastructure and Projects Authority consent.

Objectives and performance criteria

EWR is a proposed new railway that will create a direct rail link between Oxford, Cambridge and cities and towns in between, including Milton Keynes, Bletchley and Bedford and help deliver transformational growth across the region. EWR is being delivered in 3 connection stages. CS1 will connect Oxford to Bletchley and Milton Keynes. Connection Stage 2 (CS2) will enable services to run between Oxford to Bedford. Connection Stage 3 (CS3) will enable the full Oxford to Cambridge services.  

CS1 will deliver works to re-construct and upgrade a partly disused railway between Bicester, Bletchley, and Milton Keynes, with a new station at Winslow and the creation of a new high-level platform at Bletchley. This will allow for the introduction of a new 2 train per hour passenger service between Oxford and Milton Keynes, improving connectivity and journey times to meet transport and economic growth needs, including for freight.

The policy intent supported by this programme is to improve interurban and interregional connectivity, stimulate economic growth and jobs, improve local biodiversity, increase capacity and reduce crowding on rail services to and from London. By creating new opportunities for movement of goods by rail and by facilitating a modal shift to rail, EWR CS1 will help contribute to the government’s commitment to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Proposed changes to the programme scope that impact this intent or benefits realisation should be authorised by the Secretary of State for Transport and may be subject to further levels of approval.

The objective and vision of the CS1 programme is to deliver Oxford to Milton Keynes expected entry into service by March 2025 to September 2025.

Your personal objectives and performance criteria which relate to the successful delivery of the CS1 East West Rail programme are:

• seeking value for money and delivering at the most efficient cost within budget envelopes
• efficient delivery to forecasted programme schedule
• achieving overarching economic and environmental benefits that the scheme will deliver for the people and communities in the Oxford to Bletchley and Milton Keynes region

Extent and limit of accountability

Finance and controls

His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) spending controls will apply on the basis set out within the department’s delegated authority letter. Where the programme exceeds the delegated authority set by HM Treasury, the Treasury approval point process will apply and the details of each approval process must be agreed with your HM Treasury spending team. You should consult departmental finance colleagues on how to go about this.

You should note that where expenditure is considered novel, contentious, repercussive, or likely to result in costs to other parts of the public sector, HM Treasury approval will be required, regardless of whether the programme expenditure exceeds the delegated authority set by HM Treasury. If in doubt about whether approval is required you should, in the first instance, consult departmental finance colleagues before raising with the relevant HM Treasury spending team.

The overall estimated budget, resourcing requirements and tolerances for your project/programme will be agreed as part of the approval process. You will be expected to deliver within these tolerances and report quarterly on these as part of GMPP reporting.

You should operate at all times within the rules set out in Managing public money. In addition, you must be mindful of, and act in accordance with, the specific HM Treasury delegated limits and Cabinet Office controls relevant to EWR CS1.

Delegated authority

You are authorised to:

• expenditure is set out in your delegation letter
• agree project rescheduling within 3 months of agreed milestones (December 2025), but rescheduling beyond that must be agreed with IPDC
• recommend to ministers and the IPDC the need to either pause or terminate the programme where necessary and in a timely manner

These authority limits are subject to change and other conditions or tolerances may be set as part of the business case approval and ongoing monitoring processes which you should then operate within.

Where issues arise which take you outside of these authority limits that you are unable to resolve, you are responsible for escalating these issues to the ministers and the IPDC.

Appointments

You should maintain the appointment of a programme director to support you in the management of this programme and make other appointments as required for the control and delivery of your programme within your delegated authority.

Governance and assurance

You should pay attention to ensuring effective governance for your programme, including maintaining a programme board with appropriate membership and clear terms of reference.

As primary owner, you must ensure that the programme secures business case approval from IPDC, ministers and your HM Treasury spending team. You should also ensure that the programme remains aligned to the strategic outcomes, costs, timescales and benefits in line with the approved business case as well as monitor the context within which the programme is being delivered to ensure it remains valid.

Where a change impacts the scope, costs, benefits, or planned delivery milestones agreed as part of an agreed business case, you are responsible for following the agreed change request approval process and setting a new, approved business case baseline.

An accounting officer assessment for EWR CS1 has been completed and published on GOV.UK as part of the government’s transparency requirements on major projects. You are responsible for bringing to the attention of the accounting officer any material changes in the programme which could require a new accounting officer assessment to be completed and published. Guidance on completing accounting officer assessments for major projects is available from HM Treasury.

Although you are directly accountable for this programme, you are also expected to support delivery of the department’s overall strategic objectives. This means that you are expected to work collaboratively with other SROs and project directors in adjacent projects and programmes and with the EWR portfolio management office and portfolio director to manage dependencies, resources, schedules, and funding to support delivery of the overall change the department needs to achieve its strategic objectives.

You are responsible for providing assurance that the environmental principles policy statement legal duty has been considered by ministers in policy decisions underpinning the project/programme.

You should ensure that appropriate and proportionate assurance is in place and agree on the level and frequency of assurance reviews through the maintenance of an integrated assurance and approvals plan. You should develop this plan and its maintenance in collaboration with the departmental assurance coordinator and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.

Programme status, reporting and transparency requirements

The programme status at the date of your appointment is reflected in the most recent quarterly return on the programme to the Infrastructure and Projects Authority and is the agreed position as you assume formal ownership of the programme.

You are responsible for ensuring honest and timely reporting on the position of the programme to the Infrastructure and Projects Authority while it remains on the GMPP and for providing reports and information to the EWR portfolio management office as required. Reporting should include carbon measurement, and other sustainable development goals demonstrating evidence that the project contributes to an overarching environmental strategy and is aligned with defined net zero pathways. Information on the programme will be published annually by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.

As part of the government’s commitment to transparency on major infrastructure projects, you are responsible for publishing (or maintaining the publication of) on GOV.UK:

• a summary of the accounting officer assessment completed in line with the approval of the outline business case and summaries of any subsequent assessments should they be required
• a summary of the HM Treasury approved full business case
• a close-out report after the programme has been completed

Development and support

As a graduate of the Major Projects Leadership Academy, you are expected to maintain your continuing professional development as a project leader, including your status as an accredited assurance reviewer. To maintain your accreditation, you will be required to participate in a review at least once every 12 months.

The department will assist you in securing the necessary resources to support the programme and will set clear guidance, requirements and standards, which align with the Government functional standard on project delivery, to enable good governance and effective delivery. You should liaise with the department’s head of profession for project delivery to discuss the maintenance and development of your delivery and leadership skills.

The Infrastructure and Projects Authority will be available to you for support, advice, and assurance throughout the programme’s time on the GMPP.

As a tier 1 portfolio programme, the IPDC will provide ongoing oversight and support and will take steps to help resolve and escalate risks, issues or constraints that are acting as a blocker to successful delivery.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you every success in your role as SRO.

Yours sincerely,

[SIGNED]

Bernadette Kelly, Permanent Secretary of the Department for Transport

[SIGNED]

Nick Smallwood, Chief Executive Officer of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority

Confirmation of acceptance of appointment

I confirm that I accept the appointment of senior responsible owner for the programme including my personal accountability for implementation, as set out in the letter above.

[SIGNED]

Jodie Lofthouse

12 February 2025