Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken to ensure that all bidders for phase 2B of the HS2 project, including the successful company CH2M, were compliant with Article 42 of Directive 2014/25/EU on procurement by entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors, regarding conflicts of interest in procurement procedures.

All applicants are required to identify any real or perceived conflicts of interest together with a management plan for their resolution in their Pre-Qualification Questionnaires submission that is assessed as part of the prequalification evaluation process. Applicants are then required to notify HS2 Ltd immediately if any such information provided with a PQ Application changes at any subsequent stage in the procurement process.

HS2 Ltd’s contracts for consultants providing services to HS2 Ltd include conflicts of interest clauses that require the relevant consultants to undertake ongoing and regular conflict of interest checks throughout the duration of their contract and to notify HS2 Ltd in writing immediately on becoming aware of any actual or potential conflict of interest and to work with HS2 Ltd to do whatever is necessary (including the separation of staff working on, and data relating to, the services from the matter in question) to manage such conflict to the HS2 Ltd’s satisfaction.

All individuals involved in the evaluation process are required to sign a form confirming that they do not have any conflicts of interest in connection with the bidding organisations before they are allowed to undertake their evaluation, and this forms part of HS2 Ltd’s evaluator training.

Any real or perceived conflicts of interest that are raised through any of these routes are referred to HS2 Ltd’s compliance team for resolution or escalated to HS2 Ltd’s Conflicts Panel if required.