To explain cost increases since 2020, the Department pointed to several factors including: Covid, inflation, Ukraine, the supply chain and the scale of the cost of dealing with ‘planning and consenting’. It said that poor cost information and cost reporting from the supply chain had been a significant contributing factor, and that financial and risk management broadly had not been as robust and as good as it needed to be. The Department acknowledged the need for HS2 Ltd to focus on building t...

To explain cost increases since 2020, the Department pointed to several factors including: Covid, inflation, Ukraine, the supply chain and the scale of the cost of dealing with ‘planning and consenting’. It said that poor cost information and cost reporting from the supply chain had been a significant contributing factor, and that financial and risk management broadly had not been as robust and as good as it needed to be. The Department acknowledged the need for HS2 Ltd to focus on building the organisation, the capability, the processes and the leadership to drive a relentless focus on cost control.27 Type: conclusion | Number: 12 | Response status: accepted Government response: 2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Spring and autumn 2024 2.2 HS2 Ltd’s leadership and its collective capability are critical to the success of HS2. The department commenced a recruitment exercise to identify new Non-Executive Directors in Janu