Asked by: Chris Clarkson (Conservative - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many businesses in the North West of England have secured HS2 contracts.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
So far, at least 99 organisations registered in the North West of England have delivered work on HS2 to date. HS2 Ltd recognises the strong capabilities of the supply chain in the North West, especially from a rail, manufacturing and aerospace perspective. It is a region which will play a significant role in the delivery of HS2 and HS2 Ltd looks forward to continuing their programme of engagement to help ensure that businesses across the North West continue to secure HS2 contracts, grow and develop.
Asked by: Chris Clarkson (Conservative - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he is taking steps to help ensure that businesses in the North West secure HS2 contracts.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
HS2 Ltd has undertaken a comprehensive programme of market engagement since 2013, engaging with over 5,000 businesses of all sizes and types, across all UK regions, to raise awareness of the opportunities available on HS2 and how to access them. This includes a range of engagements specific to the North West where HS2 Ltd has hosted or supported a HS2 supply chain conference in Manchester, two Local Enterprise Partnership events, two UK Northern Powerhouse conferences, a HS2 roadshow event in Liverpool, two Trans-City Rail conferences, two Chambers of Commerce events (South Cheshire and West Cheshire and North Wales), a Sellafield supply chain event, and have a planned Lancashire Chamber of Commerce event.
Asked by: Chris Clarkson (Conservative - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the extent of opportunity the construction of HS2 presents for creating skilled jobs throughout the North.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Providing opportunities for Skills and Employment is one of the seven strategic objectives of HS2. HS2 Ltd’s 2018 Skills, Employment and Education (SEE) Strategy sets out the company’s aim to help the next generation develop the technical skills to not only design and build HS2, but to deliver the project pipeline of the UK’s future infrastructure and leave a lasting skills legacy for the country. Currently around 9000 people are working on HS2 and since Royal Assent in April 2017, over 350 individuals have started an apprenticeship on the project.
Underlying the SEE Strategy were labour and skills forecasting data and analysis which assessed the labour and skills that will be required to deliver the construction and rail engineering elements of the HS2 programme against an assessment of the future availability of those skills. This analysis provided a preliminary assessment of potential mismatches between HS2 labour and skills requirements and their availability. Given the changes to both the HS2 project and also the macroeconomic environment size since 2018, HS2 Ltd is about to begin a reforecasting exercise to update the demand, supply and skills mismatches for HS2. This work is due to be completed by April 2021.