The board of Network Rail has decided to recommend to its members that this Friday's meeting be adjourned. The board will take the opportunity to reflect further on how to incentivise performance in the company against the backdrop of the current context. It will continue to consult the Secretary of State on wider issues of governance in advance of the government's command paper.

Chairman, Rick Haythornthwaite, said:

"Friday's meeting was not to approve a specific annual bonus payment for Executive Directors, but rather to amend a previously approved long term incentive scheme to ensure additional external scrutiny of performance.

"The issue of annual performance payments would only arise if Network Rail surpassed stretching performance thresholds and would only be decided in May after the end of the financial year.

Chief executive, David Higgins, said:

"Even if this situation does arise this year, I and my directors decided last week that we would forego any entitlement and instead allocate the money to the safety improvement fund for level crossings. I can confirm that remains our intention."

The Secretary of State was informed of the decision to recommend adjournment this morning.