Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Government is taking to support UK small and medium-sized businesses in procurement competitions to supply (a) goods and (b) services for the construction of High Speed 2.

HS2’s procurement processes have been designed in order to open up opportunities for the wider UK supply chain (including small and medium sized enterprises). Contractors delivering major contracts will support annual ‘meet the contractor’ events. Primary (Tier 1) contractors and their sub-contractors will be required to advertise all sub-contract opportunities using the free access CompeteFor web-sourcing portal. HS2 Ltd. has also conducted extensive market engagement to enable businesses to ready themselves for HS2 opportunities.