Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they can define what is meant by the pausing of work related to HS2; whether this pausing includes stopping all work (1) on sites, and (2) in offices, for (a) design, (b) procurement, or (c) property purchases; and what is the status of works on HS2 (i) Phase 1, (ii) Phase 2A, (iii) Phase 2B West, and (iv) Phase 2B East.

As planned, HS2 will be delivered in phases, with the construction and opening of different stages taking place at different times. To help manage inflationary pressures and balance the nation’s books, we are rephasing delivery for certain elements of the programme in a way that protects value for money for the taxpayer.

HS2’s opening stage will be delivered to schedule with the first high-speed services running between Old Oak Common in west London and Birmingham Curzon Street by 2033. We will not proceed to full construction of the Euston Station in the next two years due to affordability and profiling issues, and instead we will aim to deliver the station alongside high-speed infrastructure to Manchester. Construction works on Phase One north of Birmingham, from Delta Junction to Fradley including works at Handsacre, continue to progress.

We will rephase construction of Phase 2a by two years, with an aim to deliver high-speed infrastructure to Crewe and services to the North West as soon as possible after accounting for the delay in construction. The previous delivery into service range (2030-2034) will be changed and a new delivery-into-service range for the Phase 2a section between Fradley and Crewe will be confirmed in due course.

Regarding the Phase 2b Western Leg, we are committed to bringing high-speed infrastructure to Manchester as soon as possible. The High Speed Rail (Crewe - Manchester) Bill is currently working its way through Parliament, and we are continuing to work towards delivering this section of the railway within the estimated 2035-2041 delivery-into-service range.

Work continues on progressing commitments made in the Integrated Rail Plan to develop HS2 East, the proposed route for HS2 services between the West and East Midlands.

We continue to work through the details of the rephasing that we announced for parts of the programme, and the Department for Transport will continue to update Parliament on HS2 schedule and delivery via our six-monthly reports.