Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which people are responsible for taking decisions on the HS2 (a) Community and Environment and (b) Business and Local Economy Funds; what meetings they have attended in connection with those responsibilities; and what the decisions were which were on the agenda of each of those meetings.

Decisions on either the Community and Environment Fund or the Business and Local Economy Fund follow the same process. Awards below £75,000 are assessed and determined by staff at the Grant Management Body appointed for this purpose (Groundwork UK). Above this threshold, awards are assessed by Groundwork UK and then considered by an independent Panel. The Independent Panel makes a recommendation to the Secretary of State for Transport, who takes the decision. In practice, this decision may be delegated to either another Minister or a Senior Civil Servant.

Groundwork had 13 internal panel meetings in 2017 and the Independent Panel (marked with * below) met 3 times. The projects for decision on the agenda at each meeting were as follows:

A further Groundwork internal panel meeting took place on 12 December, but this is not included in the table as the applicants in question have not yet been notified of the decisions taken.