Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 47
47
Deferred
Department and HS2 Ltd repeatedly fail to embed crucial lessons from major projects
Recommendation
However, the Committee has needed to recommend repeatedly that the Department and HS2 Ltd improve the degree they reflect on past or current experiences and implement any lessons. In 2020, the previous Committee made clear its dissatisfaction: 80 “Given the repeated emergence of issues across the Department’s major programmes, we are not satisfied that the Department is yet embedding the lessons it has learned to date.”
Government Response Summary
The government commits to learning lessons and has identified key lessons, aiming to implement them during the HS2 programme reset. It will write to the Committee outlining key areas of lessons and provide further updates in the next Parliamentary report by Summer 2025.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Summer 2025 The department is committed to learning lessons on the programme and has worked closely with HM Treasury and the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority to identify key lessons from the programme and how those can be applied. Over the course of the HS2 programme reset and transformation of HS2 Ltd, the department aims to implement these lessons. The department will also take into account the findings of the Major Transport Projects Governance and Assurance Review, led by James Stewart, many of which will be implemented as part of the programme reset. Lessons from HS2 are also being shared with the Inter-Ministerial Group for Infrastructure, NISTA and the Office for Value for Money so that they can be taken into account across Government. The department will write to the Committee outlining the key areas of lessons and will provide further updates in the next Parliamentary report.