Last month, I put down a written Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Transport, asking for the remit and cost of the consultants involved in the High Speed Two project. You can read my question and the answer in Hansard here and the text is below.
As you can see, these costs have already run to over £25 million…
Steve Baker:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport which consultants are being or have been used on the High Speed 2 project; and what the (a) remit and (b) cost to the public purse was of their services in each case.
Justine Greening:
The following table provides information on the consultants used by both HS2 Ltd and the Department for Transport since the inception of HS2 Ltd in 2009 to present. It also gives information on their remit and associated costs.
| Company |
Remit |
Costs (£) |
| ALOGIT |
Technical services |
23,184.00 |
| DbyD: Consultation Institute |
Consultation |
23,760.00 |
| Arup |
Engineering and technical services |
7,155,687.35 |
| Atkins |
Economic services |
2,053,812.96 |
| Bircham Dyson Bell |
Legal services |
117,013.52 |
| Bombardier: Min Headway Eval |
Engineering and technical services |
24,000.00 |
| Booz and Company |
Environmental and economic services |
3,550,744.07 |
| Campbell Associates |
Environmental services |
37,473.26 |
| CB Richard Ellis |
Property services |
280,606.59 |
| CCH Wolters Kluwer (UK) LTD |
Taxation services |
504.00 |
| Davis Langdon |
Cost and risk services |
26,569.60 |
| DG Consultant |
Transport services |
17,500.00 |
| Senior Ecologist—ELM Environment |
Environmental services |
10,027.74 |
| Energy Strategy |
Engineering services |
2,160.00 |
| Ernst & Young LLP |
Financial services |
410,888.90 |
| Eversheds LLP |
Legal services |
233,499.89 |
| Hay Group Management Limited |
HR services |
53,987.36 |
| Transport Studies Unit |
Transport services |
48,135.60 |
| Landmark Chambers |
Legal services |
13,800.00 |
| Mott Macdonald |
Engineering services |
4,412,654.42 |
| MSG |
Engineering services |
154,904.91 |
| MVA |
Economic services |
3,276,661.48 |
| Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd |
Environmental/transport services |
7,632.51 |
| Oliver Wyman Consulting Limited |
Strategy consultancy |
107,497.73 |
| Paul Jenkins Associates Ltd |
Engineering services |
22,696.18 |
| Rand Europe |
Economic services |
19,986.80 |
| Reg Harman Consultancy |
Environmental services |
783.30 |
| Rowsell Wright |
Procurement services |
257,976.00 |
| URS/Scott Wilson |
Economic services |
14,652.00 |
| Stoneywood Consultants |
Organisation/procurement services |
59,001.59 |
| Systra |
Operational services |
82,500.00 |
| Temple Ltd |
Environmental services |
3,209,557.60 |
| Thornton Springer |
Taxation/payroll advice |
1,842.00 |
| UKPNS Traction |
Environmental services |
111,430.95 |
That seems good money for a project that would never attract voluntary support and for those who, far from inheriting the mantle of the Victorian railway pioneers who risked private capital, rely on the taxpayer. It is a metaphor for the transformation of our society from one based on free enterprise to one dependent on state power and the essentially arbitrary decisions of politicians and officials.
Tags: Bureaucracy, Corporatism, economics, High Speed Rail, HS2, Liberty, Parliament, Rail, Transport
A quite amazing list!
Agree with you about free enterprise but ‘essentially arbitrary decisions’? As a politician yourself, is that your aspiration?
Certainly not. I would like to live in a free society.
Who commissions ‘economic’ services? Apart from the obvious observation that they are anything but economic, what are they?
Could they be provided more economically by small local firms?
All good stuff – means they’re serious about going head with this much-needed modernisation of the railway, and makes it pretty clear that whining about it and threatening to pour tax-payers money down the toilet in a fruitless legal challenge is utterly futile.