Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many flights were undertaken by HS2 Ltd personnel at a cost to (a) that company and (b) the public purse during the last six months; what the cost was of those flights; and what the reasons for those flights were.

During the period 23 September 2016 to 23 March 2017, 35 single flights and 36 return flights were taken. This was at a cost of £11,203.54.

The reasons for the flights were for investigating existing high speed rail networks, visiting rail industry conferences, and internal and external meetings. These have been broken down in the following table.