Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the measures in place at HS2 Ltd to ensure fairness and consistency in the decisions of the independent panel that considers applications under its Need to Sell scheme.
The independent panel makes a recommendation to a member of the Senior Civil Service acting on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport on whether to accept or reject an application made under the Need To Sell (NTS) scheme.
The panel is provided with guidance on the scheme and its criteria in order to ensure fair and consistent consideration of the documentary evidence supplied for each individual case.
HS2 Ltd’s NTS Secretariat provides support to the panel process, including informing the panel of any previous recommendations made that could be relevant to the case being discussed, in order to ensure consistency in the panel’s reasoning.