2. Memorandum submitted the Highways Agency
Response to Supplementary Questions following
the Hearing on the Work of the Highways Agency
15 February 2006
GENERAL
1. Please provide us with an idea of what
proportion of your work is research-based or—focused. Tell
us about one or two recent research projects of significance
In financial year 2005-06 approximately £14
million of our programme expenditure was assigned to our Research
and Development budget, against a total Agency programme spend
of approximately £1.79 billion. The programme focuses on
the key themes of Reducing Congestion, Safety, Asset Management
and Sustainability. The research is aimed at the development of
innovative and cost effective ideas for supporting the operation,
maintenance and improvement of our network.
Video Information Highway
The Video Information Highways (VIH) research
project demonstrated the use of internet technologies and broadband
transmission to deliver images from Agency CCTV cameras to Agency
staff (route managers) and to media providers such as the BBC
for use within traffic bulletins, without the need for expensive
video links. The successful research project led to a pilot of
Highways Agency Network Viewer (HANET) in 2004-05 in the South
West, which has this year been extended to almost all of the Agency's
network and offices. The availability of real time CCTV to the
media and to staff in the Agency's offices and control centres
significantly improves the quality of information provided to
drivers.
Accident Investigation Surveying Equipment
The Agency is carrying out research into advanced
accident investigation surveying techniques to improve and speed
up data capture following accidents allowing the time taken to
re-open the road to be shortened. Trials of the equipment show
potential benefits of up to £4.5 million per year in user
delays with incidents being cleared up to up to 7.5% more quickly.
The project illustrates how we are working in partnership with
the police to manage our network more effectively. Equipment has
now been deployed to West Midlands Police to use it in live accident
investigations.
2. Mr Robertson talked in broad terms about
the Agency's risk-based safety work. Could you please provide
us with more detail on this?
Traditionally risks are managed through the
use of standards for safe highway design. By definition, standards
have addressed road user risks in a generic way. The Agency's
new role as a Network Operator has led to the need for greater
innovation and less reliance on the use of traditional asset based
standards. The new challenges posed by operating the network require
a different approach. We now have to review and manage risks at
individual sites, or for specific operating procedures in a more
focused and transparent way.
In order to ensure safe operation of the network
and manage the risks to road users, road workers, emergency service
personnel etc, we have had to adopt a more formal and transparent
risk based safety management approach.
An example of this new approach has been introduced
for the pilot of Active Traffic Management (ATM) in the project
on the M42. ATM will allow the vehicles to use the hard shoulder
as a running lane at various times of the day and therefore introduces
new risks. This has required a very thorough risk based safety
management system to be developed. New measures to mitigate the
risks such as emergency refuges and new operating procedures have
had to been introduced to ensure the safety of road users, road
workers, vehicle recovery operators, emergency service personnel,
Traffic Officers and any other workers who may be involved.
Another example of the new risk based approach
has been used in the process to determine when it is safe to carry
out central reserve safety barrier repairs. Traditionally, when
a safety barrier is damaged, the standards required repair within
a 24-hour period or lane closures. This action was required regardless
of its effect on congestion or wider safety implications. The
predominant risk considered by this generic approach was that
road users might have another accident at the same location. A
risk-based approach was developed considering the wider safety
implications for road users and road workers. This has resulted
in a more measured approach tailored to the individual circumstances
at a site, resulting in an overall improvement in safety.
The Agency has also been working on developing
a number of risk-based standards to ensure that risks are better
managed. The first risk-based standard, the "Road Restraints
Standard" will be published in August 2006. This standard
will allow the risk to road users from roadside furniture such
as lighting columns and signs and features such as embankments
to be assessed. It will also allow the effect of various mitigation
measures, such as relocating the furniture, protecting with a
safety barrier to be reviewed and their effect on the risks to
the road user assessed.
Lessons learnt from the above examples have
led to the development of a new internal system for managing health
and safety, called Management Arrangements for Health and Safety
(MAHS). This system looks at the Health and Safety requirements
for office work, out of office work and Traffic Officer service,
which are covered by descriptive procedures outlining the risks
and control measures.
3. How does the Agency assess value for money?
Does this differ, for example, from the approach of local authorities?
The value for money of Agency projects is assessed
using the New Approach to Transport Appraisal.
NATA is a comprehensive approach to appraisal
considering a scheme's economic, environmental, safety and accessibility
impacts as well as its contribution to the integration of transport
policies. The approach requires identification and assessment
of these impacts and then, where possible, quantification and
valuation. Where impacts cannot be directly quantified or valued
these are still taken into account in the value for money assessment.
Information is provided on all the key impacts to ensure that
the full picture can be considered when making decisions on schemes.
Guidance on the approach to value for money is set out on a dedicated
site at: http://www.webtag.org.uk/. Alongside the value
for money assessment, a scheme's wider fit with national, regional
and local policy objectives is considered, and scheme deliverability
and affordability.
We understand that local authorities also follow
this approach for assessing the value of money of major schemes
(generally schemes over £5 million) for which specific DfT
funding is being sought. For smaller schemes, local authorities
are encouraged to follow the NATA approach, and consider the value
for money in developing their Local Transport Plans (LTPs). It
is left for local authorities to determine how their local funding,
provided through the LTP Block, is spent taking account of value
for money.
The Agency is working collaboratively with local
authorities to improve value for money by identifying opportunities
to deliver highway services and new highway works more efficiently
ie by reducing overall costs or by increasing overall benefits.
In addition to joint contracts for major projects and maintenance
services other collaborative initiatives are also being explored.
Examples of these include: the joint and bulk purchase of materials
and the setting up of regional supplier and client communities
to encourage continual improvements through improved delivery
quality and reduced costs.
Closer working will also lead to improved foreword
planning and therefore improved management of demand and of the
supply chain. The objective in all of this work is to improve
efficiency and value for money of services provided by all highway
authorities.
4. Does the Agency have good working relationships
with counterparts in other EU countries? Please provide a few
examples of good practice
The Agency is an active member of the Conference
of European Road Directors that provides a forum for exchanging
knowledge and information, and discussing common issues. It also
facilitates working relationships with counterparts in other EU
countries and exchange visits. In some cases we have seconded
staff to each other to learn about each other's practice. Some
examples of the outcomes of these working relationships are:
Study Visit to Swedish National Road Administration
(SNRA) to assess the Scandinavian Light Weight Gantry Design
The Agency visited SNRA in 2001 to look at gantries
erected on the Swedish motorway network and to discuss their design
approach.
Very light lattice gantries have been used in
Scandinavia since the early 1970s. These gantries, unlike those
in the UK, are not designed for vehicle impact and have minimal
barrier protection. There are clear cost advantages with using
a much lighter structure but this has to be weighed against the
increased likelihood of gantry collapse in the event of a vehicle
collision with one of the gantry support legs. The gantries may
also not be suitable for carrying the weight of electronic signs
and signals. The purpose of the visit was to assess if this type
of gantry could be used on the UK network and gather information
to understand the risks associated with a change in design approach.
The information was used to inform the development
of the functional specification of the gantries for the Active
Traffic Management Pilot (ATM) on the M42 and has underpinned
the development of a research brief and UK project involving crash
testing of lightweight gantries. As a result, a new specification
for lightweight gantry design is being developed by the Agency
and it is planned to trial its use in a road scheme involving
the provision of gantries later this year.
Exchange of Pavement Engineers with France
To ensure the transfer of knowledge on emerging
pavement engineering and management issue, and associated research
activities regular meetings and exchanges have taken place with
the French research agency. A major benefit to the Agency has
been the quicker route to widespread implementation of low noise
surfacing, due to the availability of results from trials within
France.
Development of data management practice with Denmark
Through membership of the Confederation of European
Road Directors (CEDR) working group on Road Data best practice,
strong working relations have been established with the Danish
Road Directorate to address the common business problems of how
to collect, reference, store, and analyse data to meet user and
administration performance standards. Denmark's experience has
been of great benefit in highlighting both best practice and pitfalls
to be avoided.
Co-operation with the Netherlands
There are many similarities between the Netherlands
and the UK in terms of the road network and its management and
there has been much exchange of information between the respective
road organisations. This January we signed a formal co-operation
agreement with them. Their earlier implementation of Active Traffic
Management helped us enormously in developing the safety and operational
procedures for the M42 Active Traffic Management Project, and
also their experience of traffic incident management has helped
us to develop our own traffic incident management programme. In
return we have participated in the European Roads Survey, which
is managed by the Dutch and have lent them some of our own advanced
traffic information signs for their evaluation.
The co-operation agreement recently signed envisages
closer working on, among other things, road safety, intelligent
transport systems, and shared research. Specific areas focussed
on network operations include further developing Active Traffic
Management, the use of technology to provide information to road
users, and congestion and incident management.
5. Could you please provide a breakdown of
the 1,590 administration staff, showing how many are specialists
(and what the specialisms are) and how many are engaged in genuine
administrative tasks? An idea of what the specialist staff undertake
in the course of their work and whether the Agency has sought
Treasury approval to re-classify staff costs as programme costs,
would also be helpful
Our existing resource information system, does
not separately record the professional status of individual staff
apart from distinguishing between those who are engineers. We
expect to have this capacity on the new shared service system.
We employ a variety of staff with professional qualifications
including procurement, finance, environment, operational research,
communications, IT, human resources, statistics, audit and health
and safety.
The Agency charges the cost of front line predominantly
traffic management staff to the Programme Resource budget. This
treatment has been agreed with Treasury, and is in line with Treasury
guidance in Public Expenditure Settlement (PES 2002) 38, which
defines administration costs as ". . . other than the
costs of direct frontline service provision or support activities
that are directly associated with frontline service delivery.
" Classification of staff costs as Administration or Programme
depends solely on the nature of the tasks undertaken, not professional
status of staff undertaking those tasks.
By far the largest proportion of front line
delivery staff are engaged in the Traffic Officer Service. In
2004-05 this function was in its infancy and averaged 142 full
time equivalents (FTE).
Of the total Administration funded staff in
2004-05, the costs equivalent to 299 FTEs were charged to our
Capital budget, and reflects the value of time spent delivering
Capital projects, the majority of which are network related.
The remaining 1,590 staff (FTEs) in post in
2004-05 were funded from our Admin Resource budget and, as is
the case with Programme and Capital funded staff, represents a
mix of specialists and non-specialists/administrators.
6. How many Agency staff are involved in
managing the property management contracts? How much decision
making power is devolved to property management agents?
We currently have two National Managing Agent
Contracts, one managing our residential portfolio of 460 properties,
the other managing our commercial and agricultural portfolio,
which consists of 820 units of property and land. This contract
also includes the disposal of all commercial and agricultural
land and property, which is declared surplus and made available
for sale.
The contractors are managed centrally in the
Agency lands policy team with day-to-day instructions issued by
Lands Operational Branches. This ensures the Agents are providing
a consistent level of service, which meets with the contract specification
and Lands Branches are operating the contract consistently.
Twenty five staff in the branches are involved
in managing these contracts together with four in the central
policy team.
In both contracts, the Managing Agent provides
a full property management service and is responsible for arranging
lettings and organising repairs or refurbishments to the property,
subject to our approval. The only exception would be where the
Agent had to approve works of an urgent Health and Safety nature.
The following are an indication of those areas
where the managing agent must seek our approval:
— Before letting a property, approval
of the new tenant and rent to be charged.
— Before agreeing with a tenant a repayment
schedule for arrears.
— Before arranging any repairs, which
exceed £2,000. All cases of repair/refurbishment which exceed
£15,000, must be supported by a full business case to include
the projected value of the asset with and without works, accompanied
by the forecast rental income once works have been completed,
which is passed to the Lands Policy Team for approval.
— Before boarding up or demolition
of a property. No demolition can take place until a business case
has been made and accepted by the Lands Policy team.
— Before any alteration can be made
to a listed building.
The Agents report to the Lands Branches on a
monthly basis, providing up to date financial data on rents received
and management information to assist them in managing the Agent's
performance against the contract specification.
7. Was the Agency fully consulted in arriving
at the Department for Transport's PSA target to make journeys
"more reliable" on the strategic road network by 2007-08?
Please outline your views of the target—are you happy with
it?
Ministers decided the form of this target, on
advice from the Department including the Agency. The Agency has
accepted the target, derived from HA data, in its 2006-07 Business
Plan.
Meeting this target will bring real benefits
to our customers. Improving the slowest journeys reduces the variability
of journey times from day to day. This makes journeys more reliable
overall—so our customers won't need to allow as long to
give themselves a reasonable chance of arriving on time. The target
underscores the Agency's operator role. Making best use of the
available capacity through the traffic officer service, preventing
incidents, managing access to motorways, improved customer information
and better planning of road works, are central to achieving the
target. The Agency has recognised the contribution that can be
made by others and is working closely with VOSA and others.
8. Has the Agency managed to reduce congestion
in absolute terms on the strategic road network? Please supply
figures if possible
The new data that we have only recently put
in place to monitor our progress against the new reliability target
for the strategic road network, will also help us to quantify
changes in other measures of congestion. But general trends in
the PSA measure, and other congestion measures, will only become
clear once a significant time series of data are available.
We expect our programme of major schemes to
help to tackle congestion in absolute terms. Between April 2004
and March 2006 the Highways Agency will have delivered 16 schemes
at a combined cost of £726 million. For the five schemes
that we have so far assessed, we estimate that savings of approximately
1.8 million vehicle hours travelling time have been generated
in just the first year after opening.
Meanwhile, our customers tell us that what really
concerns them now is the unpredictability of their journeys, and
the PSA target encourages us to tackle that right now. Our Traffic
Officer service is being progressively rolled out to all regions
of the country and as well as generating significant benefits
in terms of road safety and the saving of police time, is expected
to be a major contributor to progress against the reliability
PSA target.
9. Have you done any work on how congestion
gets shifted around the network—from Agency managed roads
on to local authority managed roads for example? Please provide
a summary of what you have discovered with figures where possible
We evaluate the impact on traffic on the local
road network for all improvement and maintenance schemes, and
we would want to avoid wherever possible shifting congestion from
the strategic road network to local roads. The development of
motorway access management is one example. These projects are
designed to ensure that if there's a risk of queuing adversely
affecting the local network, the control on the slip road is over-ridden
until the queue is sufficiently reduced.
10. In terms of ramp metering, is controlling
the flow of traffic onto the strategic road network the best way
to tackle congestion? Have you considered reverse ramp metering?
If so, has it been rejected as a strategy? Please provide details
Ramp Metering, which is now referred to as Motorway
Access Management, is a traffic control technique that uses traffic
signals on motorway slip roads to regulate the rate at which traffic
joins the motorways during congested periods. The technique enables
traffic to join the motorway without causing braking by vehicles
on the motorway itself, by only allowing traffic to join when
there are suitable gaps. The Agency is deploying ramp metering
at sites where the technique will help to tackle recurrent congestion
by delivering improvements in traffic flow and journey times.
There are other ways to tackle congestion and
each have their merits in particular circumstances: Major improvement
schemes will tackle recurrent congestion by provision of greater
capacity but take a number of years to deliver; more modest improvements
may be brought forward to address specific congestion hotspots
in the short to medium term; the Traffic Officer Service will
target non-recurrent congestion through dealing more efficiently
with the management of incidents on the network.
Reverse Ramp Metering
Reverse ramp metering is not a recognised term.
If it means metering the traffic off the motorway rather than
onto the motorway then this is in effect already taking place
at a number of junctions as a result of the traffic signals which
are located at the end of motorway off-slip roads.
If it means control of access onto the motorway
network regardless of consequential impact on the local road network,
then this is not considered a viable strategy either from a safety
or congestion perspective. We will, however be working in partnership
with local highway authorities to integrate our systems with local
traffic control systems, wherever possible, to maximise the potential
for greater traffic benefits in future.
11. Is the Agency bound by the Network Management
Duty as set out in the Traffic Management Act 2004, or does it
comply voluntarily?
Section 73 of the Traffic Management Act Network
Duty Management Guidance states that whilst the duty is not directly
applied to the Agency through the Act, the Agency has already
been given an equivalent remit by the Secretary of State to better
manage the existing network and to reduce the impact of congestion
related delay. This includes the AGENCY facilitating the movement
of traffic on local roads. In short the Agency has an equivalent
network management duty.
12. Does the communication process along
the whole of the Agency's supply chain work well (DfT-Agency-contractors)?
Please give examples of any problems encountered and how you have
dealt with them
The Agency enjoys excellent communications with
its supply chain and has put in place an extensive communication
structure at all stages and levels of:
— quarterly discussions with key suppliers
to discuss current company issues and help the Agency understand
their business strategies;
— the use of the Agency website and
electronic communication portals to provide information to suppliers;
— annual feedback meetings with all
major suppliers to discuss all aspects of performance including
performance on CAT and tendering;
— undertake annual survey of key suppliers
to get feedback on Agency's approach to procurement and contract
management;
— holding an annual conference for
key suppliers and Agency contract managers to discuss latest and
proposed changes in procurement;
— every major change to the Agency's
procurement processes is supported by an Industry Advisory Group
drawn from all parts of the supply chain;
— each key procurement route has its
own community to improve communications and identify best practice
(eg major projects and maintenance);
— the Agency meets with major supplier
forums twice a year to discuss programming and procurement issues
(eg Civil Engineering Contractors Association, Association of
Consultancy and Engineering, Quarry Products Association, etc);
and
— the Chief Executive regularly meets
senior management of key supply firms and leaders of industry
associations.
13. How sensitive is the Agency to the need
to take account of animals in maintaining its roads? In particular,
we have had complaints from the British Horse Society. Can you
please tell us about your relationship with this organisation
and give us examples where you have worked in tandem with them?
Advice on the way in which maintenance and improvement
activities should take account of native flora and fauna is included
in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB), Volumes 10
and 11. This advice has been developed in consultation with the
devolved administrations, statutory environmental bodies (SEBs)
and non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).
Before any significant work is undertaken on
the Agency network, assessment is carried out to determine all
likely environmental impacts. A range of specific design advice
is applied on species protection and enhancement for badgers,
otters, dormice, reptiles, amphibians and bats. Further advice
is being developed on white-clawed crayfish, water voles, southern
damselfly, red squirrel, and red data book species including barn
owls, as well as advice on management of pest species including
deer and rabbits.
The Agency has also published its own biodiversity
action plan (known as HABAP), which serves to outline our contribution
to the UKBAP for a number of animal species of conservation concern.
Our progress against the targets in these action plans are monitored
annually and form the basis of some of the Agency's Environmental
Key Performance Measures.
Domestic animals are an issue that the Agency
addresses in undertaking maintenance activities. An example of
this is the treatment of ragwort, which can present an identifiable
risk of ingestion by vulnerable animals if it spreads into neighbouring
land. The provisions of the Weeds Act 1959, lists Common Ragwort
(Senecio jacobaea) as an injurious weed. This is one of
several similar native species found in the UK, that include Marsh
Ragwort (S aquaticus), Oxford Ragwort (S squalidus)
and Hoary Ragwort (S aquaticus), however these other species
are not subject to control.
The provisions of the 1959 Act have more recently
been supplemented by the provisions of the Ragwort Control Act
2003, which provided for the development of a Code of Practice
on Ragwort Control. This Code of Practice on how to prevent the
spread of Ragwort was published by DEFRA in 2004.
The Code of Practice does not seek eradication
of common ragwort, recognising that a balance must be sought between
the nature conservation value of this native species and its potential
health/welfare issues. The Agency recognises the requirements
of this code and its Agents are tasked with complying with the
provisions of the 1959 Act.
The Agency has also developed a policy for dealing
with dogs killed on the Motorway and Trunk Road network (approximately
300 are killed on Agency roads each year). We have issued guidance
to our maintaining agents on the positive identification of animal
remains, their careful storage and return, where possible, to
owners. Remains are cold stored for at least seven days and if
they stay unclaimed after this time they are then incinerated.
British Horse Society
The Agency's policy is to consult with the British
Horse Society (BHS), as with other groups representative of minority
road users, whenever the needs of their members may be affected
by trunk road maintenance and improvement schemes.
A mandatory audit of the needs of all non-motorised
road users is included in the design work of all improvement schemes.
A BHS officer provided a significant contribution
to the drawing up of various Agency technical advice documents
on provision for the needs of non-motorised road users.
There have been a number of complaints in recent
years to the Agency from the BHS regarding the thin surfacing
material used for resurfacing trunk roads, which can create a
more slippery surface for horses. The Agency responds to these
complaints on an individual basis and takes appropriate action.
For example, when the A449 in the West Midlands was resurfaced
recently, a special treatment, which reduces the risk of horses
slipping, was used as a result of contact with a member of the
BHS. The Agency will consider this treatment in future schemes
where there is significant equestrian activity.
The Agency has, in general, a good relationship
with the BHS and regular contact with representatives of the Society
is maintained, eg at Regional and National Road User Committee
meetings, where their concerns are discussed.
The BHS is a major stakeholder invitee to Route
Management Strategy consultations and contributes to discussions
about the future strategy for the route.
The Agency also has an ongoing programme of
providing improved trunk road crossing points for non-motorised
road users, where appropriate, and the BHS were very involved
at a local level in the work to determine where these improvements
would be considered, for example:
— Equestrians will benefit from a new
bridge over the A14 at Burton Latimer in Northamptonshire, completed
in December 2005.
— In the recent construction of a new
bridleway bridge over the A26 near Beddingham, East Sussex, the
Agency consulted local equestrian groups on the design of the
bridge to ensure that it would accommodate horses and riders in
the best possible way. The height of the bridge parapets was increased
to 1 metre, which is above the Agency required standard of 0.6
metres.
BHS has been invited by the Agency to take part
in a road safety initiative for non-motorised users as part of
the Safety Action Plan.
14. Please explain for us what the "water
preferred policy" is, when the Agency took over responsibility
for it and why. Has the "significant" shift in the number
of abnormal indivisible loads carried from the roads to inland
waterways—promised by the DfT in June 2002—been achieved?
Please provide figures if available. Has the Agency published
any definitive guidance or research on the policy since 2002?
14(a) Please explain what the water-preferred
policy is
The water-preferred policy stems from the Government's
desire to see more freight travel by water. It recognised that
as well as general freight there were certain niche markets, like
abnormal loads, which could make greater use of the waterways.
Heavy, large and slow moving loads such as electrical transformers
and generators cause severe traffic disruption and congestion
on the road network. Power stations and sub-stations are often
located nearby to waterways so potentially could make greater
use of water in order to reduce the distance these loads travel
by road.
In June 2002 the Department issued a press notice
announcing the decision to adopt a water-preferred policy for
larger and heavier abnormal loads and also funding for two vessels
that could be used to transport these loads. The larger of the
two vessels, which came into operation in April 2004, is capable
of operating at sea and on larger inland waterways, while the
smaller vessel is a converted dry cargo vessel capable of penetrating
further inland on certain navigations.
The previous policy to minimise the distance
abnormal loads travel by road and use established coastal ports
has been revised to recognise that these vessels could enable
loads to be delivered either directly to site or to nearer locations.
This would reduce the road mileage travelled. The larger and heavier
loads require individual authorisation to move by road.
14(b) When did the Agency take over responsibility
for the policy and why?
This work of authorising the movement of the
larger and heavier abnormal loads, together with the application
of the water-preferred policy, transferred from the Department
for Transport to the Agency in April 2003, as it was more aligned
with Agency's new role as a traffic manager.
14(c) Has there been a "significant"
shift in the number of abnormal indivisible loads carried from
the road to inland waterways—promised by the DfT in June
2002? Please provide figures if available.
The June 2002 press notice announced the funding
of the two vessels and the intention to adoption a water-preferred
policy, with the expectation that the vessels would ". .
. lead to a real reduction in the mileage Abnormal Indivisible
Loads travel by road." It also went on to say that the Government
wished to encourage freight from the road wherever it is "practical,
economic and environmentally desirable". There are several
hundred large and heavy loads individually authorised by the Agency
each year to move by road. Of these there has not been a "significant"
shift in the number being moved by inland waterways. There are
several reasons why this is the case such as, the start and finish
points of the load are not near a major river or ship canal (smaller
canals and rivers cannot accommodate large loads), the cost of
moving the load by water is disproportionately high compared to
the value of the load or a road journey (sometimes impacting on
the business), the impact on traffic by allowing a load to move
by road is minimal, eg a long load moving at speed on a multi-lane
road, etc.
Applying the water-preferred policy has continued
to ensure movement of loads by coastal waters and in certain cases
loads have moved by inland waterway. These have mainly been high
value, heavier and larger loads such as transformers and generators
that would cause major traffic disruption. Since 2004 the two
vessels have been used 19 times of which six journeys have involved
the use of inland waterways. There might well be loads that have
been transported by inland waterway by other vessels and which
have not come to the Agency's attention because no permission
to move by road was needed.
14(d) Has the Agency published any definitive
guidance or research on the policy since 2002?
No definitive research or guidance on the policy
has been published to date. DfT and the Agency are in the process
of developing more detailed guidance and research has been carried
out by the Transport Research Laboratory on the cost of congestion
from abnormal loads. The guidance and research should be available
in the next two months. For the larger and heavier loads where
we believe there is potential for greater use of water, applicants
are required to complete a water pro-forma. This asks for details
of the costs associated with the road and water options including
aspects such as dredging, craneage, wharf/jetty provision.
FINANCE
15. Some finance staff are working to contract
until, at least, the end of the financial year. What impact has
this had on assisting the NAO's interim audit, the compilation
of nine month accounts and other preparations for the 2005-06
resource accounts?
We are unaware of the present industrial action
having affected either the NAO's interim audit work or the production
of the nine-months account. We do not anticipate the action will
disrupt the preparation of the year-end account and will in any
case give full support to our staff during this busy time.
16. Finance staff often work a large amount
of overtime around the year-end in order to prepare the resource
accounts. If the industrial action continues beyond the end of
the financial year how significantly will this affect the timetable
for producing the resource accounts agreed with the NAO? In particular
is there a possibility of delays, which may impact the production
timetable for DfT's consolidated Departmental accounts?
The Agency does not anticipate the industrial
action affecting the production of the year-end account.
Yes, year-end is a particularly busy time of
year for our finance team, and for others who provide data for
the statutory accounts. Detailed plans have been prepared and
resources identified to carry out this task. This envisages the
draft accounts being sent to NAO by the end of April (the same
as last year) and our contribution to the consolidated account
to the Department by 8 May.
We do rely on the dedication and professionalism
of our staff to meet this challenging timetable. We nonetheless
have a team better equipped to deliver having undertaken the production
of half year and nine month accounts (including consolidation
schedules) and we are confident we have sufficient resources to
carry out the work, on time, without recourse to excessive overtime.
The Agency, however, is not complacent to the risk that any industrial
action may pose. We will monitor the situation carefully and look
to bring additional skilled resource to bear should the situation
require it.
17. In the oral evidence session, Mr Zuydam
told us that he would expect the costs of transferring the financial
system to SAP would be in the region of £10-15 million. We
understand that Agency's current system cost in the region of
£50 million. How can the Agency be confident that it the
new system can be implemented for about a quarter of the cost
of the current system? Could you also confirm any formal cost
assessments of the transfer made?
The Agency's current financial system on Oracle
was designed and implemented during the years 2001-02, 2002-03
and 2003-04—moving the Agency from legacy cash accounting
systems, to a resource accounting financial system. The costs
involved in this major change included initial costs of scope
and strategy determination, as well as system selection. Once
Oracle had been selected as the system (on the professional advice
of Deloitte Touche Consulting), further expenditure was then incurred
on the design of the financial processes. In particular significant
costs were expended to design:
— the financial processes to support
the large and complex contracting activity of the Agency;
— the resultant bespoke processes for
both financial and budgetary control and payment for contracting
services; and
— the significant interfaces with the
supply chain needed for monthly updating and checking.
The future costs of moving the Agency to SAP
are likely to be less because the core purchase ledger functionality
for purchases other than the road programme will already be met
by the existing Shared Service SAP design. The Department recognises
that there will be additional costs to design and build all the
required interfaces and bespoke financial processes for the Agency.
The full costs will not be known until detailed technical design
work, planned for a later phase of the shared services programme,
is complete. This work will take into account our experience of
the Oracle implementation.
18. The Agency employs a lot of engineers
and other specialist staff who are not financial specialists but
who are budget holders. What has the Agency done to enable these
staff to gain the financial skills they need to be effective in
their roles?
Since February 2004, the Agency has held 76
financial awareness courses that have been attended by more than
700 staff. A further 350 staff will have attended these courses
by the end of this year. These numbers are made up of a cross
section of staff across the Agency all of whom have some financial
responsibility.
The courses run over two days and cover all
aspects of resource accounting and budgeting in the Agency and
how the financial systems can support the work of project sponsors
and budget holders.
As a result of feedback from our financial awareness
course, a specific course on the treatment of VAT on Agency transactions
has been recently been developed and is currently being piloted.
This will be available to all staff shortly.
The Agency is also an active participant in
the Department's Financial Management Professional Skills in Government
(PSG) Group. This is contributing to the development of learning
tools to ensure all staff at Pay Band 7 and above have the necessary
financial management competency to achieve the PSG requirement.
These tools will be rolled out in the Agency over the coming year
in accordance with the PSG timetable. It may be of interest to
note that our current financial awareness course ticks 13 of the
18 boxes required for PSG.
On a day-to-day basis, our project sponsors
and specialists are supported and advised on financial matters
by local project and business management accountants who are embedded
in the business.
19. Does the Agency see and review the local
authority annual efficiency statements submitted to ODPM? What
assurance does it have that the savings claimed by local authorities
are valid?
The Agency sees and examines the local authority
backward-look Annual Efficiency Statements (AESs) prior to publication.
In conjunction with DfT the Agency looks for any obvious anomalies.
Where there are concerns with the Statements these are passed
on to the council by ODPM along with those of other central government
organisations.
The initial 2004-05 AESs, published in early
2005-06, did not differentiate between highways and non-highways
local transport efficiency gains. DfT carried out a preliminary
assessment to split these two areas and the mid year update separated
out highways and non-highways efficiencies. In future all AES
submissions will identify roads and non-roads figures separately.
Recent guidance issued to councils on the measurement
and scrutiny of efficiency statements sets out the approach to
validation of efficiency gains (see www.rce.gov/rce/aio/16540).
In addition to the internal processes in place
(the Statements must be signed by the Leader, Chief Executive
and Finance Director), and examination by central government organisations,
there is a key role for the Audit Commission, and, where necessary,
independent consultants commissioned by ODPM. As of 2005-06, the
auditors appointed by the Audit Commission will review the processes
underpinning the Statements on a mandatory basis as part of the
Comprehensive Performance Assessment. It will report back to ODPM
which councils have inadequate procedures in place. Those councils
will be invited to re-examine their Statements by ODPM, and independent
consultants will be commissioned to assess whether adequate procedures
are put in place at that second stage. ODPM reserves the right
to report national figures for efficiencies that exclude returns
from those councils that do not achieve acceptable standards in
reporting.
The Agency is confident that the levels of efficiency
required by 2007-08 will be achieved. This confidence is based
on the enthusiastic work being done by local authorities and the
supply chain in the roads industry especially in working with
the Agency in its change agent role.
An element of this change agent role is to promote
consistent transport measurement techniques across local authorities
which, in turn, should lead to enhanced robustness in reported
efficiency gains, easier identification of local authority good
practice and assistance to the Audit Commission in validating
efficiencies.
20. Regarding cost overruns on major road
schemes, Mr Robertson told us in the evidence session that much
of the increases could be explained by inflation and the failure
to include some VAT. For each scheme that was listed in the Department
for Transport's answer to Tom Brake MP on 19 December 2005, could
you please provide figures showing what proportion of the overspend
is due to these causes and what reasons exist for any remaining
amounts?
We are currently analysing the cost increases
on each scheme. I will write to the Committee with details as
soon as possible.
21. Further to question 20, please clarify
why VAT was not originally included in costings and outline what
it has done to improve costing of major schemes by Agency staff.
In addition, are Agency finance staff involved in helping to cost
schemes? If not, is any professional financial advice sought?
The inclusion of an individual scheme in the
Secretary of State's TPI programme was, and still is, on the basis
of strict value for money criteria. Original scheme briefs excluded
VAT, as this was not a factor determining whether a scheme represented
good value for money. Until April 2003, Ministerial submissions
and publicly reported numbers were quoted from the scheme brief
and excluded VAT. Since April 2003 the basis of submissions to
Ministers have been amended to reflect any irrecoverable VAT.
For budgeting and forecasting purposes, the
financial effects of any identified irrecoverable VAT have always
been included in Agency programme estimates for the financial
year or Spending Review period.
We have extensive measures in hand to drive
down costs and improve estimating and budgeting.
In the first instance, the Agency's approach
is to work with the supply chain to drive down costs of construction.
Where that is not possible, cost increases are met from a reserve
allowance set aside for that purpose within the planned overall
costs of the strategic roads programme. Where cost savings can
be made, these are fed back into the reserve allowance. A review
of the impact on the overall programme is undertaken each time
a cost increase is considered to inform the decision on how to
take the scheme forward and any necessary adjustments to the programme
to remain within budget. Ongoing measures we are developing for
managing cost pressures include:
— Work to identify and quantify cost
pressures, including forecasting construction inflation.
— Actions to manage down scheme costs:
strengthening cost challenge workshops, improving processes to
cut out waste, new forms of contract which provide for value engineering,
giving sight of future work to our supply chain, improving our
commercial skills, bringing forward cost challenge earlier in
the process, considering the potential for guaranteed maximum
price contracts, strengthening our monthly business management,
improving risk management, and ensuring that our teams—backed
by focused performance management—are fully equipped to
drive out savings.
— Reviewing the allowance for Optimism
Bias and the way we use it in our estimates. Closely aligned to
this, we are piloting a new approach to risk management based
on structured risk additions to the basic estimates. The Agency
is working closely with DfT, which is carrying out complementary
work in this field.
— Developing a set of unit rates, based
on outturn costs, which will provide a series of benchmarks that
can be used to challenge costs and improve early estimating.
— Analysing construction costs. The
outcome from this work should be a series of benchmarks for major
projects that can be used for more extensive cost challenge, early
estimating and the like.
Recently additional resources have been dedicated
to this work including appointed cost consultants to drive out
any further savings from the schemes that are giving the biggest
immediate pressures and to carry out a health check on our cost
management action plan. The independent consultants have been
asked to take a view of the work on inflation.
Historically, Agency finance staff have not
generally been involved in costing up specific major roads scheme
proposals; this has traditionally been the responsibility of our
managing agents or design consultants who would employ experienced
professional quantity surveyors to estimate the costs involved.
With the introduction of resource accounting and budgeting, local
and central finance staff are now routinely involved and consulted
at various points of the project life cycle and provide advice
on the accounting consequences of any major funding or contractual
proposals, including the financing of PFI contacts. In addition,
the recruitment of two "in business" Finance Directors,
and the creation of strong in business finance teams underneath
them, should greatly enhance the financial and commercial challenge
and management to scheme cost estimates.
In addition, during the evidence session it was
agreed that notes would be provided on the following:
Figures for property acquisition and compensation
(Q353 evidence session)
In 2004-05, the Agency provided approximately
£32 million for liabilities in relation to the acquisition
of properties and £29 million for future compensation payments.
Cost of the annual rent for all of the Agency's
offices; the length left to run on the contracts; and the numbers
of staff in each location (Q311 evidence session)
The Agency has significantly reduced the number
of staff in London from over 450 since 2003 for two main reasons:
to migrate posts to regional offices to better support increased
customer focus; and to reduce estate costs. By moving people and
posts to existing regional locations, we estimate that we have
saved at least £2.5 million per annum of additional rent
costs in London.
Those posts remaining in London were concerned
with supporting the Chief Executive and working closely with Ministers
and senior officials in the Department. Originally the DfT planned
to accommodate those staff in existing DfT accommodation. When
it became clear that this accommodation was not available, we
sought to find small accommodation and following a competitive
market search secured 123 Buckingham Palace Road.
The annual rental cost of 123 Buckingham Palace
Road is £572k. As part of a continuous review of how the
Agency works, we are reducing further the number of our staff
in London, but we also recognise the need to support our staff
that frequently come to London. We are currently looking at how
this might be achieved within the existing office or elsewhere
in business efficiency and value for money terms.
The information requested on individual offices
is contained in the following table
Location |
Building Name |
Lease Expiry |
Next Lease
Breaks1 |
Current Rental
Costs |
HA Staff
Headcount2 |
| Bedford³ |
Albion House |
Jun 2015 |
None |
183,700 |
86 |
| Bedford³ |
Heron House |
Dec 2007 |
Dec 2005 |
350,000 |
222 |
| Birmingham |
5 Broadway |
Mar 2012 |
Jun 2010 |
1,167,700 |
608 |
| Bristol |
Temple Quay House |
Mar 2020 |
None |
589,800 |
206 |
| Dorking |
Federated House |
|
N/A—freehold tenure |
|
264 |
| Exeter&sup4; |
Ash House |
Feb 2019 |
Mar 2014 |
168,800 | 55 |
| Hemel Hempstead | Hempstead House
| Nov 2013 | Nov 2008
| 76,700 | 57 |
| Leeds&sup5; | Jefferson House
| Mar 2015 | None
| 327,780 | 70 |
| Leeds | City House
| Sep 2006 | None
| 481,030 | 252 |
| London&sup4; | 123 Buckingham Palace Road
| Jul 2028 | Jul 2013
| 572,000 | 91 |
| Manchester | Sunley Tower
| Mar 2005 | None
| 446,250 | 252 |
Notes:
1 This is the earliest date that we can end the lease without penalty.
2 Represents most recent HA staff headcount (as opposed to full time equivilants) though HA Accom is provided at times for contractors and engineering consultants to work on projects in HA offices.
3 It is planned to move to a single location in Bedford during the spring 2006. This building, Woodlands, is currently being fitted out.
4 Excludes rent free period element.
5 Jefferson House is where much of the Agency's central ICT equipment (servers etc) is located.
Figures for Traffic Officers by gender and ethnic background.
If you can include this split by region as well as in total, that
would be useful; (Q401 Evidence Session)
The gender and ethnicity of staff involved in the Traffic
Officer Service is shown below. It is not possible to provide
this information on a regional basis because some staff are employed
across different regions.
TRAFFIC OFFICER SERVICE—ETHNIC BACKGROUND AND GENDER
| | Male | Female
| Total |
ON ROAD
Traffic Officers
| | | |
White | 505 | 57
| 562 |
| Non White | 18 |
| 18 |
| Other | 5 | 5
| 10 |
| Not Indicated | 194 | 19
| 213 |
| TOTAL | 722 |
78 | 800 |
| | |
|
OFF ROAD
Control Centre Staff |
| | |
White | 81 | 48
| 129 |
| Non White | 4 | 3
| 7 |
| Other | 1 | 1
| 2 |
| Not Indicated | 61 | 28
| 89 |
| TOTAL | 147 |
80 | 227 |
| | |
|
ON/OFF ROAD
Staff doing both types of work
| | | |
White | 12 | 3
| 15 |
| Non White | | 1
| 1 |
| Other | 1 |
| 1 |
| Not Indicated | 10 | 1
| 11 |
| TOTAL | 23 |
5 | 28 |
| | |
|
| Agency Wide | |
| |
White | 598 | 108
| 706 |
| Non White | 22 | 4
| 26 |
| Other | 7 | 6
| 13 |
| Not Indicated | 265 | 48
| 313 |
| TOTAL | 892 |
163 | 1,055 |
Diversity Monitoring
| | | |
The Agency is an equal opportunities employer. We recruit
on the basis of ability, and make no distinction between people
on grounds of their race, sex disability ethnic or national origin,
age part-time status, religion, marital status or sexual orientation.
To do this we ask prospective candidates to complete a diversity
monitoring form. This is voluntary. The information given to the
Agency is confidential and not seen by any person who is connected
with the selection process. The information is recorded for the
purpose of diversity monitoring in the Agency.
Recruitment for the Traffic Officer Service
Advertising has been designed to attract Black Minority Ethnic
(BME) groups and we have used specific BME publications such as
"The Voice" and have run a series of feature articles
in "Works for Me". Other diversity activities include
the development of a cinema recruitment played at "Bollywood"
cinemas as well as attendance at job fairs (eg one held in Leicester
targeting Asian people at a Sikh community centre).
We have ensured that there has been briefing to response
handling staff and sifters on diversity issues. Job application
packs include an offer of assistance (a telephone number and contact
name) to complete the application form and achievement record.
Assessment Centre (AC) design and delivery
All Assessment Centre (AC) exercises were trialled for content,
style and language with individuals from BME groups and practice
psychometric ability tests are sent with AC invitations helping
candidate familiarisation beforehand. All candidates receive a
clear written timetable at the beginning of the AC as part of
a briefing session and are given a list of relevant competencies
in a written format as well as verbally.
Major road developments in the North East, including the number
of Article 14 Directions issued there, the schemes they apply
to and how they are being resolved. More generally, figures for
the number of Article 14 Directions issued across the whole of
the UK over the past three years, along with numbers resolved
and time taken to resolve them would be useful (Q374 evidence
session)
Use of Article 14 Directions in response to planning applications.
— Article 14 of the Town and Country Planning (General
Development Procedure) Order—GDPO—empowers the Secretary
of State for Transport to direct a planning authority to impose
planning conditions when approving applications in which he has
an interest. Article 14 also enables a direction of refusal or
that the application should not be determined for a specified
period (commonly called a "holding" direction). The
Agency implements planning controls using Article 14 on behalf
of the Secretary of State to ensure that safety is maintained
on the trunk road network, or that mitigation measures are put
in place to maintain its operating efficiency.
— Developers should submit a transport assessment
(TA) to a planning authority with any application that has significant
transport implications for the adjacent transport network. This
information is essential for both the local authority and the
Agency to establish whether the proposal will impact significantly
on the local transport network and, particularly for the Agency,
the strategic road network. The Agency has 21 or 28 days to respond
to such consultations, depending upon the type of application.
— In some cases there are complex issues to consider
that take longer than the statutory 21 or 28 days to resolve.
It is often the case that the TA is of poor quality and does not
contain enough detail for the Agency to understand the transport
implications. In addition a significant number of applications
are not supported by a TA. In these circumstances the Agency uses
Article 14 to direct a planning authority not to approve an application
and this can be up to six months (renewable). This is a "holding
direction" but the planning authority can turn down the application.
This additional period of time enables the Agency to discuss the
transport details with the developer in order to determine what
planning conditions might be needed to safeguard the trunk road
or motorway.
— The Agency has recently been accused of using
Article 14 directions to local planning authorities to not approve
applications (holding directions) in order to "block"
development. This is a misunderstanding of the situation; holding
directions are used to allow time to resolve difficult transport
issues and enable the Agency and developers to work together to
find solutions. The alternative would be to direct refusal due
to insufficient information, this would be a perfectly proper
use of Article 14 but it is not used in this way, as it would
not be a constructive use of the powers.
— It is important to ensure that the trunk road
and motorway network continues to support regeneration and development
by maintaining an effective service to road users. Uncontrolled
development is unsustainable, will increase congestion and delay,
create unacceptable safety problems and damage the local and national
economy.
— The Agency is proactive in encouraging developers
to agree transport assessments with them before a planning application
is lodged, where this happens it is not necessary to issue Article
14 holding directions and there is no delay to the planning process.
This is the preferred approach advocated by the ODPM.
— The Agency is consulted on over 3,000 planning
applications a year. During the 22 month period from 1 May 2004
(start date of the database currently in use) to 28 February 2006
a total of 6,228 consultations were received nationally and the
breakdown of responses invoking Article 14 of the GDPO is set
out in the table below with those for the North East Region highlighted.
— The database used by the Agency to record Article
14 Directions to "not determine" cannot provide exact
figures for how many times this has happened. When such a "holding"
direction then becomes a "no objection" response or
a direction of conditions, or refusal, the database redefines
it making retrospective analysis impossible. This is to be rectified
by a new database currently under development. Holding directions
currently in force can be identified but this includes cases where
the applicant has withdrawn the application or does not wish to
progress it. In such circumstances the Agency is often not informed
and the entry remains as outstanding in the database. This figure
does not therefore accurately represent the number of cases which
are outstanding or where active negotiations are still underway.
| Number of
consultations
| Article 14 directions
of refusal
| Article 14 directions
of conditions
| Article 14 directions
not to determine
currently in force
|
| All Regions | 6,228 | 127
| 319 | 124 |
| North East | 263 | 4
| 5 | 4 |
| |
| | |
Article 14 Directions in the North East—Position at 1
March 2006. Holding Directions for non-determination still in
force—brief details
None of these are linked to any proposed Agency improvement
scheme.
Derwent West Bank
— Date of application—28/4/04.
— Operational assessment requested for A1 junctions,
2nd holding direction issued in March 2005.
— Response to comments by developer's consultants
sent to Gateshead Council in March 2005.
— File dormant since then.
A1 Fifth Avenue Business Park A1
— Date of application—2/9/05.
— Operation assessment requested for A1/A167 and
A1/A692 junctions.
— Meeting with developers on 14/2/06 resulted in
agreement on a way forward.
— Developer discussing application with Planning
Authority.
— Solution identified, outcome depends on further
negotiations between the developer and LPA.
Corus Pipe Mill A19
— Date of application—18/2/05.
— Three developments impact on A19 Portrack Interchange.
— The Agency has carried out work to identify the
mitigation necessary.
— Stockton BC to attempt to broker a deal to fund
the improvement and act as Ringmaster.
— Awaiting outcome of developer/Stockton negotiations.
— Stockton BC have expressed appreciation for the
Agency's positive and proactive approach.
— Successful outcome expected.
Rainton Bridge Business Park
— Date of application—10/1/06.
— The site has an existing consent although the
Agency was not consulted on the original application.
— The Transport Assessment prepared for the original
application was submitted in support of the latest applications,
it does not consider the impact on the trunk road network and
is therefore not acceptable.
— Awaiting a revised Transport Assessment to include
impact on the trunk road network. A meeting has been held with
the planning authority to discuss the issues.
— Outcome uncertain until a proper transport assessment
is produced.
The following lists other current cases where the Agency has
issued a holding letter but not subject to an Article 14 Direction
Newcastle Airport Southside Business Park A1
— Date of application—17/10/05.
— An operational assessment of the adjacent A1/A696
junction shows that mitigation will be required to leave the junction
no worse off with the addition of development traffic.
— No proposals for mitigation were supplied with
the application and the developer is now addressing this.
— The proposals, if acceptable, will be conditioned
as part of the planning approval.
Cramlington A19
— Date of application—16/1/02.
— No transport assessment was submitted with the
application and is still awaited.
— The application has been called in ODPM a Public
Inquiry has been arranged for August 2007.
Durham Tees Valley Airport A66
— Date of application—12/1/05.
— Complex application due to a mixture of airport
traffic, business park traffic and cargo handling facilities proposals.
— Slow progress initially due to difficulties in
obtaining sufficient information from the developer to support
traffic forecasts.
— The Agency has undertaken its own transport assessment
due to dissatisfaction with developer's ability to progress this.
— Better progress now being made and the only outstanding
issue is a traffic assessment at one adjacent roundabout.
North Shore A19
— Date of application—1/6/05.
— Three developments impact on A19 Portrack Interchange.
— The Agency has carried out work to identify mitigation
necessary.
— Stockton BC to attempt to broker a deal to fund
the improvement and act as Ringmaster.
— Awaiting outcome of developer/Stockton negotiations.
— Stockton BC have expressed appreciation for the
Agency's positive and proactive approach.
East Durham Link Road A19
— Date of application—28/7/03.
— Proposal to link A19 Hetton bypass.
— Initial review of additional information from
consultant (received 14/10/05) is insufficient. Confirmation of
Master plan to be adopted.
— Additional information on the applications mitigation
proposals with regard to junction layout and build ability of
the scheme.
— Successful outcome anticipated.
Northside Birtley A1
— Application not received by HA.
— Previous planning permission granted 5/10/98 has
lapsed for development of 41 hectares of land for residential
purposes, primary school, and community facilities.
— The application has been called in and a public
inquiry has been arranged for May 2006.
Highways Agency Road Schemes in the North East
Schemes in the Targeted Programme of Improvements
A19/A184 Testos Roundabout Improvement
A19/A1067 Seaton Burn Junction Improvement
A66 Long Newton Junction Improvement
*A1 Adderstone to Belford Dualling
*A1 Morpeth to Felton Dualling
A69 Haydon Bridge Bypass
* Not recommended for implementation before 2016 as part
of recent advice to Ministers from the Regional Transport Board
for the North East.
Schemes Recommended for inclusion in the TPI by the Regional
Transport Board
A19/A1058 Coast Road Junction Improvement
A19/A189 Moor Farm Junction Improvement
| 
