Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the HS2 Phase One main works contractor for the section of the line past Wendover has produced an assessment of the Wendover Short Mined Tunnel Proposal and, if so, whether they will place a copy in the Library of the House.

The proposal for a short-mined tunnel at Wendover has not been formally assessed by the main works civil contractor for the area (EKFB). Following initial assessment by HS2 Ltd, the Government does not consider the proposal to be viable in value for money terms and judges any further assessment by contractors to not be an efficient use of taxpayers’ money. The contractor has however been consulted and engaged on the proposals in order to inform the content of Ministerial correspondence on this issue.