Select committee: Transport Committee
Conclusion 13
Sixth Report - Strategic road investment
Published 27 Jul 2023
Paragraph 67
Addressed to Department for Transport
Transport Committee Strategic road investment All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Understanding and scrutinising the delivery progress of a RIS portfolio, or given project is not simple. It involves cross-referencing several annual reporting documents from National Highways and the Office of Rail and Road which are not updated with changes made in the interim. This is not accessible or transparent, especially given the frequent and significant changes that can be made to the RIS programme. That the Minister responsible for strategic road investment was not able to provide us with an up-to-date progress report on the RIS 2 portfolio exemplifies how challenging it can be to track RIS progress. Reporting on the delivery of RIS portfolios must be simplified and made more accessible.
From: Transport Committee, Sixth Report - Strategic road investment (HC 904), paragraph 67, 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.