Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to circumstances where a property was shown as amber for noise levels during the Hybrid Bill Committee stage, and HS2 undertook to provide mitigation to secure that classification, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of HS2 not providing that mitigation with the result that the same property enters the red category for noise disruption.

HS2 Ltd’s civils contractors are updating the predicted noise effects of the scheme, originally published in the Environmental Statement that accompanied the HS2 Phase One hybrid Bill, as part of their design process. This is in order to demonstrate that noise from the operational railway, and from altered roads, has been reduced ‘as far as reasonably practicable,’ in accordance with the HS2 Environmental Minimum Requirements (EMRs). Contractors demonstrate that their mitigation proposals comply with the EMRs using the methodology and tests set out in HS2 Planning Forum Note 14: Operational Noise from the Railway and Altered Roads. HS2 Planning Forum Note 14 provides a framework for considering EMR compliance in situations where there has been a change in the forecast noise levels compared to the Environmental Statement. It is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/833184/PFN_14_Operational_Noise.pdf