Select committee: Transport Committee
Recommendation 10
Sixth Report - Strategic road investment
Published 27 Jul 2023
Paragraph 53
Addressed to Department for Transport
Transport Committee Strategic road investment All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Given the history of consistent delays to complex projects, it seems that portfolios to date have been too ambitious and have suffered from ‘optimism bias’. The Department needs to ensure that future RIS portfolios which include such projects are deliverable; it is time for the Government to reconsider its portfolio of expensive, complex SRN enhancement projects. There is a compelling case for each RIS portfolio to be smaller in scope to avoid continual deferral of projects from one road period to the next, or for the Government to dedicate more resource to ensuring that projects can be completed within a reasonable window.
From: Transport Committee, Sixth Report - Strategic road investment (HC 904), paragraph 53, 27 July 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 20 October 2023 (deadline 27 September 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government's response to the Committee's report on strategic road investment includes agreement on two recommendations, partial agreement on two, and a position of "notes" on four others, with a stated commitment to publish its RIS3 investment priorities later in 2023.
- On maintenance, the government "agrees" that future investment should prioritise renewal of existing assets, stating that decisions on the balance of spending are made through the statutory RIS process, with more detail in the draft RIS3 "later in 2023".
- On fuelling the future vehicle fleet, the government "partially agrees", pointing to its EV Infrastructure Strategy and a zero emission HGV infrastructure strategy that is "expected to be published in 2024".
- On a live project dashboard, the government "agrees" but says a genuinely 'live' system "would not be practical", and will work with National Highways and the ORR "to explore the opportunity for more frequent public project reporting in one place".
- On scaling back complex enhancement projects, the government "notes" the recommendation, saying the ORR and IPA "did not suggest fundamental changes" for RIS2 and that larger schemes "inevitably have longer delivery periods" across road periods.