Ms Tatiana Samsonova:

I thank the Deputy for his intervention. To be honest, I am not familiar with the cost-benefit analysis, CBA, process.

I assume it is mostly based on value of time because that is how a country goes about CBA. When there is a CBA process, at the ITF we consider it very important to have an additional process that takes into account accessibility, as well as the extent to which this particular project is improving access for everyone, by other means. Accessibility is something that is very hard, and almost impossible, to quantify, but there are qualitative ways of doing so, especially if you look at examples in the UK. It has a standard CBA process based on value of time, costs and benefits but, additionally, each project is evaluated, using this accessibility indicator, to see what extent a particular project will improve access by car or public transport and how many people will benefit from it.

The ITF has done a lot of work at round tables we have organised on the topic. The problem is that it is hard to put a number on those aspects related to improving quality of life or well-being of people. That is why it is hard to present to someone saying we are going to improve people's quality of life by X or Y; it does not work like that. One of the ways of going about it is having this qualitative, not quantitative, aspect that is related to CBA, which is also included in the decision-making process.