Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of the National Audit Office of 11 July 2017 on the 2016-17 Accounts of HS2 Ltd, whether HS2 Ltd's agreement to pay above approved levels for redundancy schemes has had consequences for the (a) structure, (b) management and (c) other aspects of that company.

HS2 Ltd fully accepts the findings and recommendations of the National Audit Office report on the 2016-17 redundancy scheme.

The HS2 Ltd Board instructed the new Chief Executive of HS2 Ltd to ensure the situation described by the NAO cannot happen again. He has made a number of senior appointments in both HR and Finance to implement improvements to internal controls and governance arrangements.

Additional controls are already in place on redundancy payments, while upgrades and improvements to the underlying staff and payroll systems are in development, and will be completed by May 2018.

New governance arrangements are being agreed between the Department for Transport and HS2 Ltd to ensure all approvals processes and decisions are properly recorded and cascaded.