Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 25
25
Ensuring that enough people with the right skills and capability are available to the High...
Conclusion
Ensuring that enough people with the right skills and capability are available to the High Speed 2 programme at the right time is critical to its success. In reports from 2013, 2016 and 2020, both this and our previous Committees have highlighted the importance of skills and capability, and concerns with the Department’s progress in this area.56 The Department is responsible for a substantial investment programme, including Highways England’s and Network Rail’s investment in the strategic road network and the existing railways respectively, and forthcoming projects from the integrated rail plan, as well as High Speed 2.57 The National Infrastructure told us that addressing the skills shortage in the infrastructure sector should be a continuous focus for government.58 We asked HS2 Ltd whether it was confident that it had the skillset that it needed to complete High Speed 53 Qq 72–73 54 Qq 60–63 55 Qq 78 - 79 56 Committee of Public Accounts, High Speed 2: Spring 2020 update, Third Report of Session 2019–21, HC 84, 17 May 2020, conclusion 3; Committee of Public Accounts, Progress with preparations for High Speed 2, Fourteenth Report of Session 2016–17, HC 486, 14 September 2016, conclusion 4; Committee of Public Accounts, High Speed 2: a review of early programme preparation, Twenty-second Report of Session 2013–14, HC 478, 9 September 2013, conclusion 6 57 Q 116 58 Q 69; Oral evidence: HS2 recall – pre panel, HC 178, Qq 45–46, 48 18 HS2 Summer 2021 2 to the timetable and budget that had been set. HS2 Ltd replied that it was confident but not complacent and that there was increased demand for skills in construction from, for example, house building projects. HS2 Ltd told us that it was making good progress with its apprenticeships programme and that it was working with government and industry to ensure that the right supply of skills was available. HS2 Ltd also noted that the workforce for later phases of the programme, such as the installation of systems needed to ope
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
5: PAC conclusion: The Department and HS2 Ltd do not adequately engage with the Department for Education to secure the skills required for the future of the programme and training the next generation of skilled workers. 5: PAC recommendation: The Department must proactively engage with the Department for Education and other relevant education providers to ensure there are plans in place for further education colleges to get the through-flow required for the programme. The Department should write to us to explain how it is engaging with these stakeholders within three months. 5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 5.2 The department wrote to the Committee in November 2021 setting out how it is engaging with the Department for Education (DfE) and other relevant education providers. 5.3 HS2 Ltd has had a team focusing on this from early on in the programme and in 2018 published a HS2 Skills, Employment and Education strategy. This strategy seeks to ensure that the programme has the people with the skills needed and will leave a skills legacy. More recently, the Building the Skills to Deliver HS2 report was published by HS2 Ltd and sets out what skills interventions are already in place and how this work has been refocused in light of the start of main works construction and the pandemic. 5.4 The department worked closely with HS2 Ltd and the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA, which is responsible for funding education and skills for children, young people and adults) to support the recent merger between the University of Birmingham and National College for Advanced Transport and Infrastructure (NCATI). Ofsted’s latest monitoring inspection of NCATI had judged the college to be making significant progress and the department will work with the college and the ESFA to continue to build on this. 5.5 Alongside NCATI there are several Further Education (FE) providers along the HS2 route that provide relevant courses and training and the department engages with ESFA regarding this provision as well. These and other FE providers across the country will support not just the delivery of HS2 but also infrastructure projects across the country. The department will continue to work closely with the ESFA to identify any challenges to provision, to support the HS2 programme and the department’s wider infrastructure programme.