Does DfI Apply Its Own Rules Consistently?

The Department for Infrastructure uses a standard five-part framework — the DoF Better Business Cases methodology — to assess every significant transport proposal it considers. It is the same framework that underpins the A5 Western Transport Corridor, Northern Ireland’s largest active roads project.

We applied that same framework to both the A5 and to our own request for a feasibility study. The results are instructive.

The A5, after eighteen years of development, three public inquiries, and a High Court ruling against the Department on 23 June 2025, currently carries documented difficulties on three of the five tests. The Strangford Lough Crossing feasibility study — a modest, bounded commission estimated at £250,000 to £500,000 — passes all five.

The table below sets out the comparison, test by test, drawn entirely from named and retrievable documents in the public record. We have asked ourselves whether this assessment is correct, sourced and robust to challenge. We believe it is. We invite you to judge for yourselves.

---

Kevin Barry BSc(Hons) MRICS Campaign Lead, Strangford Lough Crossing

Case	DoF Better Business Cases Test	A5 WTC	SLC Feasibility Study
Strategic	Does a compelling case for change exist, with demonstrated strategic fit?	✅	✅
Economic	Have realistic options been independently appraised through cost-benefit analysis to identify best public value?	❌	✅
Commercial	Is the preferred option commercially viable and procurable?	🟡	✅
Financial	Is the proposal affordable and fundable over time?	✅	✅
Management	Can the proposal be delivered successfully by the organisation and its partners?	❌	✅

---

Key

✅ Established — no barrier identified under the DoF Better Business Cases methodology

🟡 Partially established — full construction contracts currently suspended pending High Court appeal outcome ([2025] NIKB 42)

❌ Material difficulty recorded against the DoF Better Business Cases methodology

---

Methodology Reference

All five tests are drawn from the Guide to Developing the Project Business Case (HM Treasury / Department of Finance, 2018), which is the governing framework for all significant public spending proposals in Northern Ireland. The Five Case Model requires each dimension to be developed progressively through the business case process. No dimension may be used as a precondition for initiating that process.

---

Important Qualification on SLC Economic ✅

The ✅ reflects that the DoF Better Business Cases methodology raises no barrier to commissioning a feasibility study at this stage. It does not represent a claim about what a feasibility study would find. What the methodology does not permit is a negative economic conclusion reached in the absence of the appraisal process designed to test it. Source: Guide to Developing the Project Business Case (HM Treasury / Department of Finance, 2018); McPeak memo (FOI DFI-2024-0412, 22 August 2024).

---

Observation

Correctly applied, the DoF Better Business Cases methodology raises no barrier to commissioning the SLC feasibility study across any of the five dimensions. The A5 WTC carries documented and material difficulties on two of the five tests and a qualification on a third, all connected to the High Court ruling of 23 June 2025 ([2025] NIKB 42), with a pending appeal and construction contracts currently suspended. DfI is simultaneously defending a flagship scheme with recorded difficulties on three of the five tests, while refusing to commission a feasibility study that passes all five.

---

Kevin Barry BSc(Hons) MRICS, Campaign Lead Strangford Lough Crossing Campaign strangfordloughcrossing.org