Public Accounts Committee

9 July 2026

Contents updated on 10 Jul 2026

The Chair sets out the deteriorating condition of the Palace, current patch‑and‑mend spending, and MPs’ key concerns on decant duration, return, heritage protection and cost, before pressing witnesses for a clear, itemised description of phase one, its scope and cost profile, and the associated risk and contingency within the £3bn cap.

Committee Thu, 9 Jul 2026 House of Commons

00:02 - 02:30

Speaker 6

Good morning, everyone, on Thursday the 9th of July. Today, we will be examining the program of works to restore and renew the Palace of Westminster. As many of us see firsthand, the Houses of Parliament need significant work to restore and renew them. Parliament spends a substantial sum each week, around one and a half million, on patching up the Palace, while the list of health and safety incidents continues to grow. The program is now at a critical stage.

Parliamentarians are being asked to reduce the number of daily options, delivery options, from four to two and approve the initial phase one works, which are currently capped at three billion. I think it is commonly accepted that if we can get as much consensus around phase one, we are more likely to get Parliament to approve the whole project, because if they don't, I think we will be left with a very critical problem of trying to maintain a decaying building. So I remain concerned there's not enough a clearly articulated vision for the program, without which costs and timescales will remain uncertain. There is will also be an impact to procurement and tendering process, which is bound to result in higher costs. Parliament also needs to be very clear on a simple and effective governance mechanism, which is designed for delivery, so that once contracts are let, the project starts, there is appropriate scrutiny from and not only appropriate scrutiny but hopefully a minimum number of alterations from the original contract from beginning to end.

So today the committee will examine when more information about phase one and particularly the temporary accommodation arrangements will be available and to explore how the government's arrangements could be reset to support scrutiny of the program's delivery. And I would simply say this. If this generation doesn't defend our system of democracy, of which the House of Commons are at the heart of, we can't expect the next generation to defend it in the same way as it has been defended in the past. So this project I think is very critical to our country's future. So thank you both Charlotte and Russ for attending.

Now how we do this is please if you would each introduce yourselves, just say who you are, what you do and how long you've been doing it would be really helpful. Charlotte, welcome, good morning.

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