Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the contribution of High Speed 2 to transport connectivity between communities in the East Midlands.

Under the proposed HS2 scheme, the station in the East Midlands will be separated by journeys to Birmingham and Sheffield by less than 20 minutes each. Fast and frequent shuttle services could connect Nottingham and Derby with the East Midlands Hub station with a journey time of just 12mins from Nottingham and 15mins from Derby.

Sir David Higgins' report, HS2 Plus, was published on 17^th March. Government welcomes Sir David's recommendation that Phase Two should be considered holistically and integrated with classic rail investment. In order to deliver better connectivity we have now asked HS2 Ltd and Network Rail to explore a process for integrated development of Network Rail's plans with decisions on Phase Two of HS2. This will form part of Sir David Higgins' report in the autumn.