Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the Government has written UK Content into the HS2 contract to ensure that High Speed Two will be a catalyst for sustained and balanced economic growth across the UK.

The procurement of the new HS2 Phase One fleet is being undertaken in accordance with the Utilities Contract Regulations 2016. The regulations require all tenderers be treated equally on a non-discriminatory basis. This means that HS2 cannot mandate that the design and manufacture of the new fleet should be undertaken in the UK.

This also means that HS2 cannot reward, in its procurement scoring mechanism, UK or regional content over non-UK content. However, the Utilities Contract Regulations do include a scoring mechanism that assesses each Tenderer’s plans for developing skills, education and employment opportunities and promoting supply chain opportunities through the supply and maintenance of the new trains.

All parties invited to tender are required to make clear in their proposal how the manufacture and maintenance of the rolling stock will add value to the UK economy and contribute to the delivery of the HS2 programme strategic goals. All such commitments made will be included in the contract with the winning bidder.

HS2 cannot mandate that the design and manufacture of the new fleet should be undertaken in the UK. However, the procurement has the potential to realise many benefits for the UK, for example a ‘supply chain mapping’ exercise conducted by HS2 identified over 270 potential tier 2 and 3 rolling stock suppliers, over 70% of which are UK-based.

The procurement you refer to for the supply of new Piccadilly line trains from Siemens Mobility Limited was conducted by London Underground Limited (a subsidiary of Transport for London).