Source · Select Committees · Transport Committee
Recommendation 12
12
Deferred
Consider establishing a Street Works Commissioner or alternative independent dispute resolution function.
Conclusion
The Department for Transport should consider setting up a Street Works Commissioner in England to help ensure the consistent application and interpretation of legislation, provide an option for independent dispute resolution and monitor performance across the sector. This would provide clarity for the street works industry and help promote good practice. If the Department considers this approach too costly, it must identify and put in place an alternative approach to ensure that common areas of dispute can be resolved efficiently by an independent, central function whose decisions can be communicated and applied across the sector. (Recommendation, Paragraph 54) Managing disruption
Government response summary AI-generated
The government's response focused on lane rental schemes as a tool to reduce disruption from street works and mentioned publishing results of a consultation on devolving approval powers for these schemes, completely avoiding the recommendation for a Street Works Commissioner or alternative dispute resolution body.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
We recognise the Committee’s interest in strengthening consistency and accountability across the street works sector. In England, there is currently no equivalent to the Scottish Road Works Commissioner. Oversight is shared between the Department for Transport, which sets the legislative and regulatory framework, and individual highway authorities, who manage works on their networks in line with their statutory duties. Dispute resolution is set out in the Co-ordination Code of Practice. Straightforward cases are referred to the chairs of a regional HAUC for mediation. More complex cases are escalated to HAUC England and, if necessary, to HAUC UK. If agreement still cannot be reached following panel review, the chairs of HAUC(UK) will appoint an independent adjudicator from a list of recognised bodies. The adjudicator’s decision is then deemed final. The Government is currently undertaking a review of arm’s length bodies with a view to close, merge or bring functions back into departments if their continued existence cannot be justified. The creation of a new arm’s length body in the form of the Street Works Commissioner appears inconsistent with this approach but we remain open to exploring ways to improve the existing system. We will engage with HAUC (UK) to understand whether current processes for dispute resolution, performance monitoring, and the application and understanding of legislation including through the provision of guidance could be enhanced to better support consistency and transparency across the sector. We acknowledge the Committee’s reference to the Scottish Street Works Commissioner and will continue to engage with colleagues in Scotland to share best practice and understand the impacts of their Commissioner. It is worth noting that the volume of road works is considerably less in Scotland – there were 163,147 works in Scotland in 2023/241 as opposed to over 2m in England.2 Therefore, the resource requirements for an English commissioner and an office to support him/her would be significantly greater. 1 SRWC Road Works Monitoring Report 2023–24 2 Source: Street Manager. The DfT receives data reports from Street Manager. Data in Street Manager is input by users who are responsible for ensuring it is accurate.
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