Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what (a) independent assurance, (b) external audit and (c) third-party review was conducted on the (i) cancellation and (ii) remediation cost estimates contained in, or used to inform, the document entitled High Speed 2 (HS2) Phase 1: decision to continue delivery following programme reset – Accounting Officer Assessment summary (May 2026), updated on 19 May 2026.

The cancellation and remediation cost estimate assumptions were initially assured within HS2 Ltd. The analysis was then reviewed and assured by the Department of Transport, including the Department’s independent project advisors. As part of the Accounting Officer Assessment process, the analysis was independently reviewed by the Department’s Economic Centre of Excellence. The HS2 reset has, and continues to receive, Parliamentary scrutiny.