Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 12
12
Rejected
DfT cannot deliver all Gear Change actions due to funding and shifting priorities
Conclusion
We also asked DfT about progress in delivering the Gear Change programme. The NAO found that DfT made progress against most (22 out of 33) Gear Change actions, with most progress made on measures targeting capability, including the formation of ATE. Less progress was made on actions around integration, partly because measures to increase and stabilise dedicated funding for longer-term planning have not been achieved.23 We therefore asked DfT and ATE how they would prioritise delivering the remaining actions. DfT told us that it could no longer promise to deliver all 33 actions in Gear Change due to funding constraints and the shifting priorities of Ministers since Gear Change was published in 2020. DfT said that it would focus its activities on the activities where it and ATE could have the greatest impact.24 Evaluating the impact of spend on active travel infrastructure
Government Response Summary
The government rejected the recommendation, stating it does not consider it necessary to re-evaluate objectives by 2025 as they will be reviewed in the CWIS 2 report and revised in the third CWIS in 2025.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
2.1 The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. 2.2 As the Committee has noted in its report, the intention of the department was to set deliberately challenging objectives for active travel in the second statutory Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS 2) and this was irrespective of the funding available. 2.3 The most recent National Travel Survey statistical release on walking and cycling, published on 30 August 2023, showed that the department is on track to achieve only one of the four objectives for active travel in CWIS 2 (that 46% of short journeys in towns and cities should be walked or cycled by 2025). 2.4 The department does not consider it to be necessary to re-evaluate what it expects to achieve against these objectives by 2025. This is because it will be reviewed in the report to Parliament on CWIS 2 and revised objectives will be set within the third CWIS (both due in 2025). 2.5 To inform the report to Parliament and the third CWIS, the department has commissioned research on active travel funding for the first and second CWIS (from 2016 to 2025) and the outputs of that funding. Many of the funding streams within both CWIS periods are projections, based on a range of evidence. This research will more accurately measure how much money has been spent, and what was delivered against the projected outputs.