Challenge
86. Following its establishment in 2009, HS2 Ltd established three challenge panels
(strategic, technical and analytical) “to provide independent expert scrutiny on different
elements of [its] work.” These panels continue to meet. Of the three groups, currently
comprising 22 people (all men), only the Analytical Challenge Panel contains any evident
critic of high-speed rail. The Strategic Challenge Panel comprises eight transport and local
government experts who are almost all publicly supportive of high-speed rail, including the
Director of Yes to HS2, the Director of Greengauge 21 and the Chairman of Network
Rail.211 Mr Hammond said that the details of the challenge panels were a matter for HS2
Ltd but he thought they had “worked well”.212
TSC review of HSR doc
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