Asked by: Cheryl Gillan (Conservative - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish unredacted versions of the papers of the audit and risk assurance committee of HS2 Ltd.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is important that HS2 Ltd has the space to discuss robustly and frankly the HS2 programme. HS2 Ltd publishes the minutes of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee (and the minutes of the HS2 Board) to provide transparency around the decision-making process while maintaining necessary levels of confidentiality to allow frank and robust discussion. Representatives from the National Audit Office attend HS2’s Audit and Risk Assurance Committee. It is chaired by a Non-Executive Director of the HS2 Board.
Asked by: Cheryl Gillan (Conservative - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with the Home Secretary on how many migrant workers from each of the standard occupational classifications in the shortage occupation list will be required to complete High Speed Two.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of its comprehensive Skills, Employment and Education strategy, HS2 Ltd has undertaken detailed labour and skills demand and supply forecasting and analysis (https://assets.hs2.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/13145027/CS1006-HS2-labour-and-skills-demand-and-supply-forecasting-and-analysis.pdf ) which is designed to ensure the project’s skills needs are met and that it leaves a positive employment legacy across the whole of the UK.
This work does not include an analysis of how many migrant workers from each of the standard occupational classifications in the shortage occupation list will be required to complete High Speed Two.
Asked by: Cheryl Gillan (Conservative - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reason the minutes of HS2 Ltd board meetings have not been published since October 2019.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As said in response to a previous PQ (PQ939) HS2 Ltd are required to publish such minutes within three months of the meeting being held. The minutes from the respective meetings in October have been published. Meetings held since October will be made available via the company’s website according to these timings. The minutes for October can be found on the link below:
Asked by: Cheryl Gillan (Conservative - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate he has made of the value of all residential property purchased by HS2 Ltd to facilitate the construction of High Speed Two.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As at 31 January 2020, the Secretary of State has acquired 1,151 properties at a cost of £715,398,387 through the statutory blight and non-statutory property compensation schemes across all phases of HS2.
The property compensation schemes strike a balance between supporting impacted property owners and protecting the public purse. The schemes were introduced gradually to each of the three HS2 phases between 2010-2017 following extensive public consultation. They will remain in place until one year after each HS2 phase is operational.
Asked by: Cheryl Gillan (Conservative - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reason the minutes of HS2 Ltd audit and risk assurance committee meetings have not been published since October 2019.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Board and the Assurance and Risk Committee minutes for October can be found on the following link:
Asked by: Cheryl Gillan (Conservative - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the full results of the IPSOS MORI public opinion work commissioned by HS2 Ltd.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The reports of the public opinion survey work, undertaken by Ipsos Mori, commissioned by HS2 Ltd will be published this spring.
Asked by: Cheryl Gillan (Conservative - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many HS2 Ltd board meetings Ministers have attended; what the name is of each Minister who attended; and on what date they attended.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In the past twelve months no Ministers have attended any HS2 Ltd board meetings. HS2 Ltd is held to account by the Department for Transport through the Development Agreement and through its Framework Document which defines its corporate standards.
Asked by: Cheryl Gillan (Conservative - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to Answer of 27 January 2020 to Question 6592, on High Speed 2 Railway Line, if he will list (a) the 2,000 organisations that have been awarded contracts to deliver work on High Speed Two and (b) the services each of those organisations are providing.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
HS2 Ltd can supply a spreadsheet that details the suppliers that they have transacted with along with a product category description that is identified during the creation of purchase orders. However, HS2 Ltd are already included in the Department’s published monthly spending transparency data, setting out data on all spending over £25k and detailing the types of services provided and the suppliers engaged in those services. Further, HS2 Ltd separately detail contract opportunities on their web site, where contracts let to date are publicly available. We therefore do not deem it appropriate to re state this already publicly available data.
Asked by: Cheryl Gillan (Conservative - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 27 January 2020 to Question 6592, on High Speed 2 Railway Line, whether Ministers in his Department authorised the award of those contracts to deliver work on High Speed Two.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department has granted delegated authority to HS2 Ltd to undertake their own procurement activity, which is set out under the terms of the Development Agreement between HS2 Ltd and the Department. Where this level of delegation may be exceeded on specific contract approvals, then this is progressed through the Department’s internal Governance arrangements.
Asked by: Cheryl Gillan (Conservative - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, above what level of contractual payment are contracts awarded to HS2 Ltd required to be authorised by (a) a Minister and (b) the Treasury.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department has granted delegated authority to HS2 Ltd to undertake their own procurement activity, which is set out under the terms of the Development Agreement between HS2 Ltd and the Department. The tiered levels of authority pertaining to contractual authorities recorded in the Development Agreement are commercially sensitive.