Transparency data

Transpennine Route Upgrade programme SRO appointment letter

Updated 9 March 2026

Sender

Jo Shanmugalingam, Permanent Secretary of the Department for Transport (DfT)

Becky Wood, Chief Executive Officer of the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority and the Senior Accountable Officer for project delivery across government

Recipient

Farha Sheikh, Senior Responsible Owner for the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) programme

Letter

4 March 2026

Dear Farha,

Subject: Appointment as Senior Responsible Owner for the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) programme

We are writing to confirm your appointment as Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) of the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) with effect from 13 May 2025. This letter sets out your responsibilities and the support you can expect from your department, Government Project Delivery and the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority.

As SRO, you are directly accountable to the director general for Rail Reform and Strategy Group under the oversight of Jo Shanmugalingam as accounting officer for the Department for Transport, and the Secretary of State for Transport.

Your TRU programme forms part of the Rail Infrastructure north and west portfolio and will follow DfT’s investment approvals governance process, under the oversight of the investment committee and is included in the Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP).

You have personal responsibility for the delivery of the Transpennine Route Upgrade and will be held accountable for the delivery of its objectives, policy intent and outcomes. This encompasses securing and protecting its vision, ensuring that it is governed responsibly, reported on honestly, escalated appropriately and influencing the context, culture and operating environment of the programme. You are also responsible for ensuring the ongoing viability of the programme and recommending its pause or termination if appropriate. Where issues arise which you are unable to resolve, you are responsible for escalating these to the relevant Executive Committee (ExCo) sub-committees.

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 the programme.

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 is detailed in government project delivery’s guidance on the role of the senior responsible owner.

You are expected to run your programme in accordance with the government functional standard for project delivery, and the requirements of other functional standards as required, which is mandated for government departments and arm’s length bodies to follow. You should also make yourself familiar with the teal book, government project delivery’s code of practice for project delivery, and any further guidance and requirements set by the project delivery and performance 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 the achievement of the final tranche of funding release in March 2029. 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 National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority consent.

Objectives and performance criteria

The policy intent supported by this programme is to kickstart economic growth and break down barriers to opportunity through TRU’s core focus on improving journeys and connectivity across the north of England. TRU’s route electrification also makes a major contribution to decarbonisation in the north and contributes to enabling a transition to net zero GHG emissions by 2050.

Any proposed changes to scope which impacts on this intent or the realisation of benefits must be authorised by the relevant ExCo sub-committees and may be subject to further levels of approval.

The vision of the TRU programme is to deliver a safe, reliable, and well-maintained network to boost economic growth. By improving passenger and freight connectivity, it will raise productivity, support key growth sectors, and provide people with better access to jobs and opportunities. TRU will also contribute to greener, safer and healthier transport by cutting carbon emissions and advancing decarbonisation, while improving transport for people through better journeys and higher user satisfaction across local and regional communities.

Its objectives are to:

• improve rail users’ experience by providing more frequent, more reliable, faster and less crowded trains
• improve connectivity to grow the north, reducing inequality
• attract new users to rail – both passenger and freight
• ‘green’ the railway to contribute to decarbonisation and other environmental benefits

Your personal objectives and performance criteria that relate to the programme are to:

• seek value for money and efficient delivery to forecasted timescales
• achieve the overarching performance, economic, societal and environmental benefits of the programme to deliver for the people and communities in the surrounding area of the Transpennine Route and the wider north region
• lead on resolving integration issues that interact with the programme
• ensure a plan is in place for the closure of the project at the appropriate time – this should include transfer of business-as-usual activities to Great British Railways and capture and dissemination of appropriate lessons

Extent and limit of accountability

Finance and controls

HM 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 HMT, the HMT approval point process will apply, and the details of each approval process must be agreed with your HMT 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, HMT approval will be required, regardless of whether the programme expenditure exceeds the delegated authority set by HMT. If in doubt about whether approval is required, you should, in the first instance, consult departmental finance colleagues before raising it with the relevant HMT spending team.

The overall estimated budget, resourcing requirements and tolerances for your 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 HMT delegated limits and Cabinet Office controls relevant to the Transpennine Route Upgrade.

Delegated authority

Your authorised expenditure is set out in your delegation letter, and you are authorised to:

• agree project rescheduling provided you are satisfied that the expenditure can be accommodated under the annual expenditure limit, as agreed with the HMT for control period 7 and for future control period planning, in which the rescheduled expenditure would now fall. Rescheduling beyond this must be agreed with DfT’s ExCo sub-committees and may require wider cross-government agreement
• recommend to the Enhancement Portfolio Board and the relevant ExCo sub-committees the need to pause, delay 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 director general for Rail Reform and Services Group and the relevant ExCo sub-committees.

Appointments

You should appoint a full-time 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 the establishment of 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 the investment committee as well as Cabinet Office and HMT. 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 monitoring 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.

You should ensure that an accounting officer assessment is completed alongside the approval of the outline business case and that this is 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 TRU 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 HMT.

You are responsible for providing assurance to the accounting officer and relevant oversight bodies that the environmental principles policy statement legal duty has been considered by ministers in policy decision underpinning the programme.

Although you are directly accountable for this TRU 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 rail infrastructure north and west 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 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 National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority.

TRU programme status, reporting and transparency requirements

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

You are responsible for ensuring the honest and timely reporting on the position of the TRU programme to the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority while it remains on the GMPP and for providing reports and information to the rail infrastructure north and west portfolio management office and DfT’s ExCo sub-committees 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 TRU programme will be published annually by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority.

As part of the government’s commitment to transparency on major projects, you are responsible for publishing 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 HMT approved full business case
• a close out report after the TRU programme has completed.

Guidance on the publication of business cases and on the completion of accounting officer assessments is available from HMT.

Evaluation

Evaluation of major projects is a requirement. Given the scale and complexity of major projects, it is essential that they are evaluated properly to learn lessons and help ensure accountability. As an SRO of a GMPP project, you are responsible for ensuring that your programme has a proportionate and suitably resourced evaluation in place. Evaluation planning should begin from the very start of the policy development and the initiation of the programme. Progress with the development and implementation of evaluation plans will be monitored through the major project assurance process.

You are also responsible for registering all planned, live and completed evaluations on the government evaluation registry. Guidance on using the evaluation registry is available on GOV.UK.

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 TRU 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 will be part of the department’s cohort of major project leaders who will be expected to support each other, share good practice and lessons learned and collectively develop solutions. 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 National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority and government project delivery will be available to you for support, advice, and assurance throughout the programme’s time on the GMPP. Government project delivery’s suite of standards, guidance, tools, templates and services can be accessed from projectdelivery.gov.uk and we encourage you and your team to register for accounts.

Following approval of the business case and designation as a Tier 1 project, the department 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]

Jo Shanmugalingam

Permanent Secretary, Department for Transport

[Signed]

Karina Singh

Director, Function, Insight and Profession

National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority

Confirmation of acceptance of appointment

I confirm that I accept the appointment of Senior Responsible Owner for the TRU programme, including my personal accountability for implementation, as set out in the letter above.

[Signed]

Farha Sheikh

February 2026