Mark Wild, the new Chief Executive of HS2, is undertaking a comprehensive reset of the Programme which will provide a realistic budget and schedule to deliver the remaining works.

Given the complexity of conducting a reset whilst maintaining in-flight delivery, sufficient time must be given to accurately inform a robust range of when HS2 services will commence. The Department will update Parliament once this work is completed.

The Department regularly reports on HS2 expenditure through 6-monthly reports to Parliament. As we set out in the latest report published in July 2025, the total overall costs incurred up to the end of April 2025 on HS2 are £40.5 billion (in nominal prices), including expenditure on the former Phase 2.

The Department is working with key partners to develop affordable, integrated plans for the Euston Station Campus, which will comprise the new HS2 station, upgrades to the Network Rail station and enhancements to the London Underground station and local transport facilities along with a significant level of development. Significant progress has been made and we will set out more details in due course.

I refer the noble Lord to the answer given to his Question UIN HL10400 on 23 September 2025. In addition to the open market value of the acquired land in the absence of the scheme, owners and tenants are entitled to loss payment compensation for the distress and inconvenience of having to move from their property at a time not of their choosing and to claim compensation for disturbance (i.e. losses unconnected to the value of property such as professional fees).

The Cabinet Office is responsible for a subset of public bodies administratively classified as Arm's-Length Bodies, which include Executive Agencies, Non-Departmental Public Bodies, and Non-Ministerial Departments.

There is no statutory definition of "ombudsman" in government, and bodies with varying functions can be labelled as ombudsman

Data on which ALBs are ombudsman bodies, or how they are funded, is not held centrally.

The Government does not hold information on the running costs of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration which was established in 1967 and was superseded by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) in 1973. Information on the running costs of the PHSO are set out in its published annual reports and accounts. The running costs for the years for which the PHSO holds information are as follows:

The overriding principle of compulsory purchase compensation is ‘equivalence’, so that landowners are left neither better nor worse off (at least in monetary terms) as a result of their land being compulsorily acquired.

Compulsory purchase compensation is based on the open market value of the land acquired in the absence of the scheme, for example, regeneration project or railway line, underlying the compulsory purchase. This is known as the “no scheme principle”. Under the no-scheme principle, any increases or decreases in the value of the land attributable to the compulsory purchase scheme, or the prospect of the scheme, are disregarded when assessing compensation for the value of land acquired. The Government has no plans to change this principle.

HM Government does not reimburse the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) for any Search and Rescue (SAR) activity and does not differentiate the SAR response to small boats crossing the Channel from any other type of SAR.

HS2 records show 346 farms were included within both Acts of Parliament. These Farms will be impacted to varying degrees, including through loss of land due to acquisition or other effects, such as impacts to access or impacts from noise.

HS2 Ltd does not categorise properties by type - i.e. ‘houses’ - as a property can have mixed usage. For example, a farm can be (or have within it properties which are) residential, commercial, and/or agricultural, and similarly, a pub can be (and often is) both residential and commercial.

HS2 Ltd does record the number of property compensation claims made, however, the quantity of claims does not indicate how many houses (or other properties) have been acquired because property arrangements are highly varied.

HS2 Ltd does record the amount of land that has been acquired. To date, approximately 56km2 of land has been acquired for Phases One and 2a through compulsory purchase. No land or properties have been compulsory purchased along the route of Phase 2b as HS2 Ltd has never had the legal powers to do so.

In respect to demolitions, HS2 records show that 332 structures have been or were scheduled to be demolished along the route of HS2. It should be noted that this figure is not limited to properties but includes other structures such as substations and bridges.

The Government recognises forestry skills as vital for achieving environmental targets, enhancing biodiversity, and supporting the economy through sustainable woodland management and green job creation. The Government is facing a very challenging wider fiscal context. This has meant that Defra has had to make difficult decisions about funding which has included not to continue with the Forestry and Arboriculture Training Fund in 2025/26. The Forestry Commission is collecting feedback from course attendees and will be working with key stakeholders throughout 2025/26 to deliver the Forestry Sector Skills Plan. There are new technical, higher technical and professional education routes being developed into the forestry sector, and work is underway to improve links with allied sectors such as arboriculture, agriculture and horticulture.

This government has been clear that the position on HS2 is totally unacceptable for passengers and taxpayers. It is acknowledged by this government and new CEO Mark Wild that the past contractual performance of our delivery partners has failed to meet cost and schedule expectations.

We have taken action to grip the project and tasked Mark Wild to reset the project, including reforming and resetting the relationship with the supply chain, and to deliver Phase 1 safely and at the lowest reasonable cost.

Throughout the development of the HS2 programme there has been engagement with industry, and input sought from wider government stakeholders, to seek to ensure that the commercial approaches and contracts adopted are appropriate for the individual assets being delivered. Consequently, a variety of different contract forms are in use across the HS2 programme including both fixed price and defined cost contracts (similar to cost plus), as well as other contract forms. For example, HS2 Ltd’s Main Works Civils Contracts (MWCC) are defined cost, incentivised, two-stage design and build contracts based on the NEC 3 Option C target cost contract model. Such NEC contracts are in common usage throughout the UK construction industry as they provide flexibility and encourage a collaborative approach.

Notice to Proceed was granted on HS2 Ltd’s Phase One Main Works Contracts in 2020. At that time there was no prospect of determining a reliable fixed price, nor getting the supply chain to agree to such a model given the residual risk. Therefore fixed price contracts were not viewed as viable.

As with all procurement activity on HS2, these contracts were let in line with HS2 Ltd’s governance and assurance requirements which conform with UK procurement law.

It is not a condition of receiving compensation for property purchased on the HS2 route that the owner must enter into a non-disclosure agreement.

This Government inherited an exceptionally bad position at HS2, and has been working hard to grip HS2’s spiralling costs and has tasked HS2 Ltd’s CEO with conducting a comprehensive review of the programme, including assessing the current position on cost and schedule. He will provide advice for government to assess leading to agreeing a reset budget in 2026.

As reported in the last HS2 report to Parliament in December 2024, overall spend to date was £30.2 billion (2019 prices). An update will be provided in the next report to Parliament.

The date for delivery of initial HS2 services between Birmingham Curzon Street and Old Oak Common by 2033 remains, but there are significant pressures on this schedule.

We will report to Parliament once we have agreed a revised estimate for cost and schedule.

The UK government is not currently undertaking any estimates of the demand for atmospheric carbon dioxide for the UK’s trees. However statistics published on behalf of the government by Forest Research estimate that the amount of carbon stored in UK forests is currently the equivalent of approximately 16 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

The current global carbon dioxide concentration is measured to be around 420 parts per million (0.042%), higher than at any time over at least the last 2 million years.

The Government is not aware of any cloud seeding operations taking place in the UK and is not deploying such technologies and has no plans to do so. There are no UK or international laws specific to the regulation or governance of weather modification, however, there are many relevant existing legal frameworks and principles .

https://co-create-project.eu/publication/scoping-note-on-applicable-legal-frameworks/

Yes.

The British beef sector is highly resilient and plays a significant role in the production of high- quality meat for both the domestic market and for export. It operates in an open market and the value of commodities is established by those in the supply chain. The government continues to work closely with the beef industry and to monitor the impacts of the range of commercial, environmental and market related factors which influence a farmer’s decision to rear beef.

The UK has a high degree of food security, built on supply from diverse sources, strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes. We produce 60% of all the food we need, and 73% of food which we can grow or rear in the UK for all or part of the year. These figures have changed little over the last 20 years: historical production figures, including for the commodities you reference, can be found in “Agriculture in the United Kingdom”, a publication of annual statistics about agriculture in the United Kingdom at GOV.UK.  UK consumers have access through international trade to food products that cannot be produced here, or at least not on a year-round basis. This supplements domestic production, and also ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.

Domestically, the Government has committed to broadly maintain the current level of food we produce. This includes sustainably boosting production in sectors where there are post-Brexit opportunities, including horticulture and seafood, and the Agriculture Act imposes a duty on the Secretary of State to have regard to the need to encourage environmentally sustainable food production. Our farming reforms aim to support a highly productive food producing sector by supporting farmers to manage land in a way that improves food production and is more environmentally sustainable, and by paying farmers to produce public goods such as water quality, biodiversity, animal health and welfare and climate change mitigation, alongside food production.

Speaking at the recent National Farmers Union Conference in Birmingham, the Prime Minister and the Environment Secretary announced a range of measures to boost productivity and resilience in the sector, including the largest ever grant offer for farmers in the coming financial year, expected to total £427 million. This includes doubling investment in productivity schemes, bolstering schemes such as the Improving Farming Productivity grant, which provides support for farmers to invest in automation and robotics, as well as solar installations to build on-farm energy security. The Prime Minister also announced a new annual UK-wide Food Security Index, which will capture and present the data needed to monitor levels of food security, and announced plans to hold the Farm to Fork Summit annually.

For around 2,300 growers in the East of England sugar beet plays a vital role in soil and crop health in the arable farm rotation, allowing a season of “rest” from cereal production. Farmers consider a range of factors, including global market developments in price, their soil type and their long-term agronomic strategy, when deciding which crops they should include in their crop rotation. Domestic disease and pest pressures and the weather will also impact the quality of the crop and resulting sugar production levels.

The UK has a high degree of food security, built on supply from diverse sources, strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes. We produce 60% of all the food we need, and 73% of food which we can grow or rear in the UK for all or part of the year. These figures have changed little over the last 20 years: historical production figures, including for the commodities you reference, can be found in “Agriculture in the United Kingdom”, a publication of annual statistics about agriculture in the United Kingdom at GOV.UK. UK consumers have access through international trade to food products that cannot be produced here, or at least not on a year-round basis. This supplements domestic production, and also ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.

Domestically, the Government has committed to broadly maintain the current level of food we produce. This includes sustainably boosting production in sectors where there are post-Brexit opportunities, including horticulture and seafood, and the Agriculture Act imposes a duty on the Secretary of State to have regard to the need to encourage environmentally sustainable food production. Our farming reforms aim to support a highly productive food producing sector by supporting farmers to manage land in a way that improves food production and is more environmentally sustainable, and by paying farmers to produce public goods such as water quality, biodiversity, animal health and welfare and climate change mitigation, alongside food production.

Speaking at the recent National Farmers Union Conference in Birmingham, the Prime Minister and the Environment Secretary announced a range of measures to boost productivity and resilience in the sector, including the largest ever grant offer for farmers in the coming financial year, expected to total £427 million. This includes doubling investment in productivity schemes, bolstering schemes such as the Improving Farming Productivity grant, which provides support for farmers to invest in automation and robotics, as well as solar installations to build on-farm energy security. The Prime Minister also announced a new annual UK-wide Food Security Index, which will capture and present the data needed to monitor levels of food security, and announced plans to hold the Farm to Fork Summit annually.