The government has already spent over £3m on legal fees for High Speed 23 – even though construction work will not get underway until 2017.
In a Freedom of Information Act response, the Department for Transport said it had spent £1.3m each with lawyers Winckworth Sherwood and Eversheds up to December 2013.
The firms advised on and prepared elements of the hybrid Bill for HS2 which was published on 25 November 2013.