Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 48
48
Deferred
HS2 Euston exemplifies department's failure to learn from past major rail projects
Recommendation
The previous Public Accounts Committee also concluded in its 2023 report on HS2 Euston that it was another example of the Department making the same mistakes and failing to learn lessons from its management of other major rail programmes, highlighting the need for more work on cost estimation, the treatment of contingency and managing the integration of complex projects.81 78 Committee of Public Accounts, High Speed 2: Spring 2020 update, Third Report of Session 2019–21, HC 84, 17 May 2020 79 Committee of Public Accounts, HS2 and Euston, Tenth Report of Session 2023–24, HC 67, 7 February 2024 80 Committee of Public Accounts, High Speed 2: Spring 2020 update, Third Report of Session 2019–21, HC 84, 17 May 2020; 81 Committee of Public Accounts, HS2 Euston, Sixty–third Report of Session 2022–23, HC 1004, 7 July 2023 25
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.