To ask the Minister for Infrastructure to outline the work that has been undertaken, in chronological order, relating to the York Street Interchange Scheme following the successful procurement legal challenge which resulted in the setting aside of the Contract Award.

In December 2019 the procurement competition for York Street Interchange scheme was stopped and the contract award set aside, following a legal challenge. As a result of this, my Department has reviewed its procurement strategy in order to inform any future procurement competition.

In July 2020 it was decided that a review of the scheme proposals should be carried out to provide assurance on how and to what extent the proposed scheme reflected and accommodated key objectives and priorities. This was an independent external assurance review, carried out in November 2020, and included engagement with key stakeholders. In March 2021 the recommendations from this review were published.

Since then, work has been ongoing to address those recommendations including a further review of the scheme to ensure it aligns with the concept of placemaking and the latest best practice in terms of urban transport design. This Placemaking and Active Travel Review (PATR) was completed by a specialist team independent from the project team and, again, included engagement with key stakeholders. The review has identified options for further consideration to improve placemaking and active travel provision and work is now ongoing to refine these. I published the PATR on 11 October 2022 and it can be viewed at http://www.yorkstreetinterchange.com/