Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of construction inflation on mitigation projects linked to the building of HS2 Phase 1.

The funding provided to HS2 Ltd includes allowances for inflation based on inflation forecasts set at spending reviews. HS2 Ltd has been impacted by high levels of inflation in recent years alongside all major construction projects. However, HS2 Ltd continues to bear down on its costs to mitigate this, manage pressures within its annual budgets, and is working to reduce the impact to any mitigation projects linked to the building of Phase 1.