This morning in his written statement to Parliament, Patrick McLoughlin announced the First Reading of the High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) Bill, calling it as "a significant step forward in the government's strategy for a high speed rail network that will address the critical capacity constraints that we face and improve connectivity between our great cities."

The Bill's introduction itself was delayed a little as William Hague had to make a Statement on Iran.

The long title of the Bill is a bit of a mouthful, although it does indicate that the Government is laying down a marker about the principle of the Bill. By referring specifically to the link to HS1, they are seeking to head off arguments (made recently by TfL and others) that this link should not be introduced until Phase 2: "A Bill to make provision for a railway between Euston in London and a junction with the West Coast Main Line at Handsacre in Staffordshire, with a spur from Old Oak Common in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham to a junction with the Channel Tunnel Rail Link at York Way in the London Borough of Islington and a spur from Water Orton in Warwickshire to Curzon Street in Birmingham; and for connected purposes."

Several other documents were published alongside the Bill. They included further Government policy papers, as well as the type of documents that ordinarily accompany major development consent applications.

The development consent-type documents are:

  • the Environmental Statement (as required by standing orders). This ES describes the railway, the alternatives considered to it, the significant environmental effects that are likely to arise from its construction and operation, and the measures proposed to avoid or reduce these effects;
  • explanatory memorandum, supposedly explaining the effects of the Bill;
  • plans sections and cross-sections;
  • a book of reference, listing all of those whose properties are affected;
  • estimate of expense - this is a single page summary which sets out an estimate of the cost of building the scheme, the latest figure is £19,390,000,000.
  • housing statement - this sets out the number of houses that will be acquired to build the scheme and the number of persons residing in them
  • the environmental minimum requirements, which set out the high level environmental and sustainability commitments that the Government will enter into through the hybrid Bill process; and
  • impact assessments, which provide information on potential impact effects of the HS2 Phase One line of route between London and the West Midlands.

The policy-type documents are:

  • various information papers which are intended to provide further information to those outside the project on the policies and strategies which define the hybrid Bill and ES documentation;
  • a command paper setting out outcomes of the Phase One design refinement consultation for 12 design refinements;
  • a command paper on impacts on social rented housing; and
  • a command paper on properties above tunnels.

Given the size of the documentation (the Bill itself is 428 pages long and has 65 clauses and 31 Schedules), Government procured itself an exemption from the normal requirements to deposit copies with all of the affected local authorities. However, the documents should be found on GOV.UK if you can navigate that site, and http://www.hs2.org.uk/, which is easier to use. A full set of the application documents will require some substantial hard drive space to download, or chopping down a tree or two if you want to print out a hard copy.

There is now a public consultation on the ES, which runs until 24 January 2014. A report summarising the ES and the responses will then be produced by an independent assessor appointed by the House Authorities. This is intended to inform the Second Reading debate, as MPs are highly unlikely to read the whole ES.

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