Since 2013, the Department and HS2 Ltd have told the Public Accounts Committee that they have been learning lessons from other major programmes to apply to how they are managing the HS2 programme. For example, in 2019, the Department and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority published a ‘Lessons for the sponsorship of major projects’ report that drew from the Department’s experiences, and the Department told the previous committee that it was embedding the 24 lessons across its portfolio. It pointed to lessons such as using realistic ranges for costing and schedules rather than fixed points, taking action to reset the programme rather than continuing and hoping it is brought back under control, and using benchmarking to test and assure cost estimates.78 More recently, in November 2023, HS2 Ltd also told the previous committee that it was strengthening its governance, with a particular focus on controlling costs.79