What legal avenues are available to the Welsh Government to challenge the UK Government's decision to classify the HS2 rail programme as an 'England and Wales' project?
The decision to cancel the Birmingham to Manchester HS2 route makes the case even clearer that HS2 is an England only project. The Welsh Government is giving consideration to the options available to us to challenge this decision, including legal avenues, should the UK Government continue to classify it as an England and Wales project.
Our current approach through Ministerial engagement, working with stakeholders and through the support of the Senedd is to request UK Government address comparability and secure the re-classification of HS2, and to address the fairness of England and Wales project investment decisions to enable greater rail infrastructure investment in Wales, particularly in light of the UK Government’s Network North announcement. However, if we cannot reach agreement through these arrangements, the dispute resolution processes, which were published as part of the Intergovernmental Relations Review in 2022, are operational and open to us.