Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they required HS2 Ltd to produce a rigorous assessment of costs in relation to alternative proposals for a short-mined tunnel at Wendover on HS2 Phase One.

In 2017 the Department for Transport asked HS2 Ltd to assess an alternative mined tunnel proposal produced by a third party with the support of local stakeholders. HS2 Ltd’s response included a comparative assessment which highlighted where HS2 Ltd disputed the costs put forward in the proposal. HS2 Ltd’s assessment concluded that the costs of the proposal were underestimated. This assessment was supplied to David Lidington MP in December 2017 and Rob Butler MP in March 2020.