Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on what premises officials in his Department are working on High Speed (a) 2 and (b) 3; what the square footage is of each premises; and what the annual cost per square foot of each premises is.

High Speed Rail Group occupy approximately 510 square metres of the third floor Great Minster House (GMH). The cost per square metre in GMH is £850 per annum including VAT. Therefore, the total cost of our accommodation in GMH is £433,500 per annum. The main point to note is that we do not pay for any of this accommodation because it is part of the Department for Transport (DfT) overheads and the Building Services do not recharge any part of DfT for such provision.