Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what methodology was used by KPMG during the independent external consultant review of the Wendover Short Mined tunnel proposal on the HS2 proposal on the HS2 Phase One line of route.

In spring 2018, the Department instructed KPMG to undertake an independent review of the presented options, both from HS2 Ltd and from mbpc Ltd (on behalf of Wendover Parish Council) for the route of the railway in the Wendover area. The Department asked the review to examine and consider both options, and to consider whether the information provided by mbpc Ltd was sufficient to justify a re-evaluation of the consented scheme. The review included a comparative assessment of the cost, schedule and technical viability of both presented options.