Recommendation 28

HS2 Ltd told us that the nature of the High Speed 2 programme means that the work required for it will be disruptive. HS2 Ltd estimated it had handled 124,000 queries over the past three years and interacted with over 76,000 people along the route.63 The Independent Construction Commissioner HS2 (the Commissioner) told us that the complaints the programme had received so far had mainly been about disruption to roads and traffic, vegetation clearance and noise and vibration from construction activity.64 With delivery of the main civil engineering projects on Phase One only formally beginning during 2020, both HS2 Ltd and the Commissioner told us that the volume of complaints was already increasing, but that this was inevitable.65 Complaints to the Commissioner rose to 86 in the first quarter of 2021 from 74 in the previous quarter.66 The Commissioner told us that while current volumes were unsatisfactory, the scale of the programme and the number of communities it impacted meant the programme was likely to generate large 59 Qq 69–71 60 Committee of Public Accounts, Progress with preparations for High Speed 2, Fourteenth Report of Session 2016–17, HC 486, 14 September 2016, para 13 61 Qq 65–66, 116 62 Qq 66–69, 116 63 Qq 104, 108 64 Oral evidence: HS2 recall – pre panel, HC 178, Q 20 65 Q 108; C&AG’s Report, para 1.3; Oral evidence: HS2 recall – pre panel, HC 178, Q 24 66 Independent Construction Commissioner, Seventeenth report: Quarter One 2021, page 2 HS2 Summer 2021 19 number of complaints, and that volumes of complaints were likely to continue to increase as the programme developed and more communities were affected. It explained that HS2 Ltd’s complaints system was so far working “extremely well” and that 90% of issues were resolved within the 20 working-day timetable. The Commissioner also told us it will be important to have a lessons learned process fully embedded in the programme, so lessons are shared between Phase One and Phase Two and mistakes are not rep