Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government, assuming that there is no change to the scope of HS2, what is the additional cost of the two year pause.

We are deferring some capital expenditure on HS2 over the next two financial years in order to manage the public purse in light of inflationary pressures. The Department is working at pace with HS2 Ltd on finalising funding profiles over the next two years and this will include agreeing a sensible funding allocation on work for the rephased elements of HS2. HS2 Ltd is working with its supply chain to understand the wider cost and schedule implications for the programme, including identifying mitigations that seek to protect taxpayer value-for-money from these deferrals. We will continue to provide transparent reporting of costs and regularly update Parliament through our six-monthly reporting process.