Foreword

This Plan sets out how we will improve travel on England's strategic road network in the period 2006-08 with increased resources and new and challenging targets.

The key features are a new journey reliability target, delivery of enhanced information for road users and increasing capital investment to relieve pressure on the busiest points of the network.

Demand for road travel continues to grow. This is the result of people making longer journeys, greater use of home delivery services and in changing land use in residential and commercial developments. We will do our best to address all of these demands, but will have to manage them as well, if gridlock is to be avoided.

Road Safety remains a priority and we will continue to improve by delivering our contribution to government's 10-year target of a further reduction of 750 people killed or seriously injured in 2006-07. I expect that our roads will continue to be amongst the safest in the world. To make real improvements we also need to encourage greater safety awareness and better driving by our increasing number of road using customers.

The road network is subject to intense pressure from the wear caused by traffic and needs continuous attention through maintenance if it is to remain safe for use and its value preserved for the future. Our rolling programme of maintenance will continue and we are currently reviewing both our methods and our contracts to ensure roadworks are carried out safely, economically and with minimum disturbance to road users and those who live near the network.

Technology plays a big part in the safe use of the network. Investment in technology will also to help us exploit all of the space on busy carriageways. Technology, combined with using traffic officers even more effectively will help us to deliver greater journey reliability.

We will continue to deliver improvements to the network. We expect to complete 3 widening schemes and 7 major improvements and will continue to work on 20 other schemes of national and regional importance. We are also preparing one of the country's biggest and most challenging motorway developments, the widening of the northern half of the M25 Orbital motorway. We will issue a tender for a PFI contract for construction and operation of this project during 2006.

Environmental needs are an important element in our programme. We have reviewed our own environmental targets and will deliver a programme that includes actions to address recycling, accessibility, biodiversity and air quality as well as continuing our delivery of government's policy on noise reduction and energy efficiency. 

I believe this is a challenging plan which can only succeed with the continuing commitment and enthusiasm of all our people working in effective partnership with our supply chain.

Archie Robertson
Chief Executive

A copy of the Business Plan 2006/7 can be downloaded here (PDF 1.3MB)

Foreword

Contents

Introduction

Making customers' journeys more reliable

Improving road safety

Respecting the Environment

Customer Service

Efficiency

Organisational development

Appendices

Contents

Introduction

The Business Plan

This document outlines the Highways Agency's delivery plans, together with related budgets for the next two financial years - 2006-07 and 2007-08. It is intended to give our customers and stakeholders a clear sense of our vision and purpose over the next two years and an indication of our longer-term goals in relation to the Government's latest congestion and safety targets.

Who we are and what we do

The Highways Agency is an executive agency of the Department for Transport (DfT) and is responsible for operating, maintaining and improving the strategic road network in England on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport. Our aims, objectives and values are shown at Annex 2 (PDF 33KB).
 
The Board includes a Chief Executive, eight executive directors and three non-executive directors, who secure overall delivery of the Agency's responsibilities. The organisation structure can be seen at Annex 1 (PDF 60KB). We have a small corporate centre in London and ten offices in eight locations throughout the country.

Putting Customers First

Last year's Business Plan outlined the major changes happening in the Agency as we moved towards more customer-focused, front-line operation of the strategic road network. The first Highways Agency traffic officers began operations in the West Midlands in April 2004. Since then we have rolled out the service on all our motorways, and are gradually building up the level of service being provided. We expect to reach full capability by December 2006 and have all elements of the service transferred from the police by Summer 2007.

This addition to our traditional role means that we are increasingly focusing on traffic management in order to keep the traffic moving smoothly and improve journey time reliability. This complements our existing role of managing, maintaining and improving a public asset worth over £72 billion and frees up Police time to focus on tackling crime and other core policing activities. By March 2006 we had in excess of 1200 operational staff nationally. We expect to have some 280 regional control centre staff in seven regional control centres around the country and some 980 traffic officers by the time we reach our full capability.

The Agency has also had a whole year in which to work within the Corporate Plan framework: "Customers First". This Plan has helped to improve our focus on customers to transform the ways in which we deliver services right across the Agency. We put customers first in everything we do, understanding and responding to their needs.

Since the last Business Plan the Department for Transport has published - in July 2005 - a new Public Service Agreement (PSA) target to improve reliability on inter-urban roads. This is designed to reduce the average delay experienced on the slowest 10% of journeys on the strategic road network. The Agency, through the deployment of traffic officers and the implementation of other measures detailed in this document, will be working hard to improve journey time reliability in line with this new and challenging target. 

More information is included in the section on Making customers' journeys more reliable. 

The Network

The Highways Agency's road network comprises various types of road ranging from motorways carrying up to 200,000 vehicles per day to single carriageway trunk roads (the major A roads) carrying fewer than 10,000 vehicles per day. The network provides a vital service to commerce and industry and to the lives of individuals and communities. A map of the network is shown on the inside front cover.

One of the Agency's major tasks is the safe maintenance of the network, using the most innovative methods available, as well as specific road improvement schemes. We are helping companies introduce travel plans for their employees and encouraging individuals to think about the consequences of their everyday transport choices so they might consider, for example, sharing a car journey to work. The Agency is in the process of implementing travel plan pilots at groups of large traffic-generating businesses close to congested stretches of the network. Current pilot sites are on the A45 at Northampton, the M5 at Cribbs Causeway and the M27 in Hampshire. The Agency is also encouraging more environmentally sustainable travel measures through its input to the spatial planning system. An example of this is the travel planning measures being implemented at the Team Valley Development on the A1 at Gateshead.

Supporting Policy Development

The Highways Agency works closely with its parent department, the Department for Transport, on developing policy areas such as the preferred solution for the providing additional capacity on the M6 corridor, road pricing, designated growth areas, the national speed limits database and general advice. We are, for example, undertaking detailed development work on the M6 corridor between Birmingham and Manchester so that a decision can be taken by the Secretary of State on the preferred way forward as soon as is practicable. This will enable any additional capacity to be provided without delay, consistent with addressing the environmental concerns.

Key Performance Measures

Challenging performance measures are agreed with Ministers each year and our performance on these is reported to Parliament in our Annual Report, which can be found on our website www.highways.gov.uk. Our key performance measures for 2006-07 to 2007-08, comprising the indicators and targets set by Ministers, are shown in the KPI table (PDF 50KB), together with explanatory notes.

Funding

The table in Appendix 3 (PDF 40KB) sets out the gross investment plans for the strategic roads network over the period 2006-07 and 2007-08. The table also shows investment plans for the internal administration of the Agency.

Introduction

Making customers' journeys more reliable

Indicators:

Deliver the PSA target to make journeys more reliable on the strategic road network by 2007-08.

  1. Deliver improved management of the strategic road network.
  2. Deliver the programme of improvements to the strategic road network.
  3. Deliver improvements to journeys by making information available to influence travel behaviour and inform decisions.

Public Service Agreement Targets

The Department for Transport published its Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets in July 2004 as part of the Spending Review 2004. As part of that process the Department has published, in July 2005, a new PSA to make journeys more reliable on the strategic road network. This target is designed to bring real benefits to customers by reducing the variability of journey times from day to day.

The Agency's strategy for this PSA target is set out in a delivery plan comprising a package of workstreams encompassing traffic incident management and prevention, better information to customers, improved roadworks management and co-ordination, completion of major schemes, smarter use of technology and demand management.

A key part of the Agency's delivery plan is to analyse the journey time data now becoming available to us to clarify the relative impact that this range of initiatives has on the target. This information will then inform our decisions on funding priorities for 2007-08.  The importance of completing this work by October 2006 is underlined by its inclusion as one of the key performance indicators in this Business Plan. 

The Agency is also working hard to achieve our share of the Department's safety target to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured in Great Britain in road accidents by 40%, the number of children killed or seriously injured by 50% (all roads) and 10% reduction in the rate of slight casualties by 2010, compared with the 1994-98 average. Targets for the environment will also contribute towards the Department's Air Quality Strategy targets.

Regional Funding Allocations

The Government announced in July 2005 long-term indicative regional funding allocations covering transport, housing and economic development, and invited each region to provide advice on their priorities within these allocations. The allocations include funding for major schemes on strategic roads that are primarily of regional importance. Therefore, in recent months we have liaised with the regions to help them develop their advice, and inform them of current issues affecting performance of the strategic road network. The regions submitted their advice in January, and Ministers will make final decisions on the proposed funding packages in the Spring.

Regional allocations will improve decisions on investment in major road schemes within each region by ensuring that they are planned to take into account regional views and alongside other planned investment. This will also help the Agency with the long term planning required for our network. It should be emphasised that routes classified as being of regional importance for the purposes of Regional Funding Allocations, will still be protected, managed and maintained by the Agency as part of a single strategic network serving each region and connecting it to the rest of the country.

Major schemes

The Agency's programme of major road schemes aims to address the most pressing network problems: easing congestion and making traffic safer; providing safer and healthier communities; and supporting regeneration - for example in the designated growth areas such as the Thames Gateway - and integration. The programme of investment in improvements to the trunk road and motorway network - the targeted programme of improvements (TPI) - comprises a number of schemes each costing more than £5million, funded either conventionally or through public-private partnerships. Over the next two years we will be investing approximately £1.7 billion and we expect to open at least 23 major schemes between 1 April 2005 and 31 March 2008. Major national schemes in the TPI are listed at Annex 4.

The Agency's most challenging project over the next decade will be the widening of the M25. This will be achieved through a "Design, Build, Finance and Operate" (DBFO) contract. The contractor will be responsible for designing and building most of the M25 widening, as well as the maintenance for about 30 years. This will include the whole of the M25, the stubs and tails of radial strategic roads and the Dartford Crossing. We hope to award the contract in early 2008. 

The widening work is expected to take around eight years to complete. We will be seeking the highest standards of safety during and after construction, ensuring that traffic flows on the M25 are safely maintained. Enhanced environmental features will be a vital part of the works. In addition to the widening we will be developing integral demand management measures to lock in the benefits of widening the road. 

Major Schemes due to open in 2006-07

Smaller Schemes

The Agency has a programme of various smaller schemes designed to improve the road network. They each cost less than £5 million to construct. They enable us to achieve some significant improvements at local level, often making use of new technology, in order to reduce congestion, improve safety, provide better accessibility and integration with other modes of transport and protect the environment. For example, schemes due to be delivered in 2006-07 include, the A45/A509 Wilby Way Roundabout Improvement, Wellingborough. Long queues regularly occur on all approaches to the roundabout during peak periods, particularly on the westbound A45 (morning peak) and eastbound (evening peak). The scheme will provide a westbound segregated left turn lane with the widening of the eastbound approach to the roundabout. The scheme also gives us the opportunity to carry out some landscaping and planting improvements.

Priority Action Sites

In October 2002 a programme was announced of 92 priority sites on the motorway and trunk road network where particular concerns over safety and congestion had been raised. We anticipate that 74 of these will have been completed by April 2007 and 84 of the 92 schemes are on target to be delivered by 2007-08. 

The target for 2006-07 has been reduced, from 77 (2005-06 Business Plan) to 74 schemes. This is due to the continual monitoring of the programme which, as it approaches the latter stages, sometimes needs to be changed in line with current policies or issues such as third-party contributions to the cost of some schemes. In light of the reliability and safety targets we will be reviewing the programme to ensure that we are still targeting the correct traffic hotspots.

Managing Traffic - Highways Agency Traffic Officers

The key objectives of the Traffic Officer service are to:

Traffic officers are currently operating on motorways in all seven Regional Control Centre regions. The completion of the programme will be achieved when full service is reached for all Regional Control Centres (RCC). This is when all the functions identified in the National Guidance Framework have been transferred from the Police. By December 2006 all 7 Regional Control Centres will have reached full capability: all the resources will be in place in all regions, both in the Regional Control Centres and on-road, in order to be able to operate a full-time, year-round Traffic Officer Service for all Police Control Office areas. Full service will be reached when all the agreed functions have transferred from the Police to the Highways Agency: this is expected during the summer of 2007.

Key facts:

National Traffic Control Centre (NTCC) Quinton

The National Traffic Control Centre commenced operations in November 2003. Information on network conditions is collected, analysed and quality assured before being disseminated to customers through various information services. There are around 350 strategic Variable Message Signs (VMS) located at the key decision points on the motorway network which are set by control room operators and used to supply longer distance diversion advice and information during major incidents helping drivers avoid these areas. The media are also informed of traffic conditions and roadworks information which is used as a basis for their radio and television traffic broadcasts.

From September 2004 real time traffic information (Traffic England) became available on the Traffic Information section of the Agency's Website. In March 2005 the information services were expanded further with the release of the easy to use automated telephone service providing up to date information on traffic conditions.

The emphasis for the next phase of this project will be to improve the quality of information services through increased operational experience and through valuable feedback from operational partners and users. The work with stakeholders and partners, such as other highway operators and the police, will continue and be expanded to ensure that more and better co-operation and co-ordination is realised for the effective management of the network. The effectiveness of information services will be measured by self-monitoring usage and market research.

National Incident Liaison Officers

The National Incident Liaison Office (NILO), based at the National Traffic Control Centre (NTCC), Quinton, has been operational for around 18 months and continuously monitors and reports all major/critical incidents on a 24/7 basis 365 days of the year. The NILO provides information to radio and travel information providers and the Agency's Press Office. They work closely with Area Teams and Regional Control Centres to ensure customers are alerted to major incidents affecting the motorway and trunk road network via updating our website and keeping the Highways Agency Information Line (HAIL) informed throughout the life of an incident.

Smarter Traffic Management

The first full phase of operation of the M42 Active Traffic Management (ATM) pilot (3 lane advisory speed limits) began in June 2005, operating over the whole section, Junctions 3A - 7, under the control of the new West Midlands Regional Control Centre. On 29 November 2005, 3-lane mandatory variable speed limits were successfully introduced onto the M42 ATM section. To date the scheme has introduced Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling (MIDAS), the use of new signs and signals, comprehensive close circuit television (CCTV) coverage and made Emergency Refuge Areas (ERA) available to the public. By March 2007 there will be a trial using the hard shoulder as an additional running lane at which point the ERAs will be fully monitored. Together these measures will allow:

Influencing Travel Behaviour

During the last year the Highways Agency has started pilot projects to make users aware of the impact of their transport choices and to influence the travel behaviour of those who use the strategic road network. The table below indicates the scale of the pilot sites, which have been implemented in 2005/6.

Pilot Site Network Location Number of Employees Number of Companies Initiatives implemented by end March 2006
Northampton A45 Northants 3,000 1 Company specific travel plans. Personalised journey planning system.
The Mall M5 Cribbs Causeway 4,000 135 Area wide travel plan. Car sharing scheme.
Solent Business Park M27 Whiteley  Hampshire 3,500 60 Area wide travel plan. Car sharing scheme. Travel plan website launched

A series of transport studies have been carried out at these sites to determine what transport infrastructure provisions already exist. This has identified gaps in the existing transport infrastructure and also highlighted potential for improved services such as bus services, shelters, timetables, cycle/pedestrian access etc.

As the Agency does not have the remit to deliver these initiatives on its own, close joint partnership with local highway authorities, as well as the organisations themselves, is critical to success in this area. Now that the Agency has developed the travel plans, the lead role transfers to the locally appointed (and funded) travel plan coordinators to implement the various measures proposed within the area travel plan and promote their adoption within all companies on the site. 

The Agency will carry out post implementation monitoring of results in late 2006. This will take the same form as the baseline monitoring (traffic trip counts or travel surveys). The Agency will publish a report for these sites detailing changes in travel habits achieved, by March 2007. 

Previous case studies have indicated that travel plan benefits typically continue to accumulate over a period of up to three years. On this basis results reported in March 2007 are unlikely to reflect optimal benefits achievable. This needs to be factored into any the cost/benefits assessment and carefully considered within the decision being taken then about further rollout and whether to step up the Agency's activities in this area.

High Occupancy Vehicle/Car Sharing Lanes

In 2004 the Government announced an innovative scheme designed to reduce congestion and improve journey times: High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes (or car sharing lanes). These lanes, the first of which will be a pilot at the junction of M606 and M62 motorways aims to encourage drivers to share cars and operate at peak times to help minimise delay and congestion for road users. Another car sharing lane to be introduced as part of the widening scheme on the M1 between junctions 7 and 10 (St Albans and Luton) was announced last year. We anticipate that a further review of the motorway and trunk road network could identify other potential sites which will be assessed to develop a robust programme to deliver other schemes across the Agency's network.

Journey Planning

The Agency takes a pro-active approach to the provision of information. The website - www.highways.gov.uk - now carries a headline 'ticker' across the top of each of its 10,000 pages, containing details of current incidents on the network. Clicking the headline will take users to the website's real-time traffic service for more details. The site also lets users register to receive automated email alerts on information that's important to them. More than half a million subscriptions for the service are currently in place.

In addition, road users can access other information on the Agency website, much of it also updated in real-time. Among the tools at customers' disposal is a Traffic Forecaster, using historical data to predict traffic levels on dates and times in the future. Travellers can use the information to plan their journeys with confidence.

The Agency's partners have a significant need for web-based information. We aim to meet this by developing PartnerNET, a web-based facility, for information sharing and collaboration with our supply chain. Shared working practices will strengthen delivery and offer opportunities for cost savings, in turn, driving improved service to customers.

Transport Direct "Connecting People to Places"

The Highways Agency is a contributor to the Department for Transport's Transport Direct programme including exclusively providing information on conditions on the motorway and trunk road network. Transport Direct is the on-line journey planning service for Great Britain, initially available as a web site at www.transportdirect.info. It presents the user with a range of journey options by different modes of transport - both public and private. Journey plans are presented as step-by-step instructions supported by detailed maps, real time information and links to ticket retail sites.

Roads Information Framework

The Roads Information Framework (RIF) programme is focused on drawing data from disparate sources so that it can be shared across the Department for Transport, Highways Agency and Local Highways Authorities to support operational management, performance management, and strategic planning. Within the Agency the team has developed a data retrieval and reporting system which will facilitate the assembly, combination and analysis of raw data from disparate sources and turn them into information - which can then be used by Agency managers for improved evidenced-based decision-making. The RIF team has concentrated initially on the provision of congestion information - derived from flow, journey time and event data. 

Achievements to date:

Future objectives:

Further analysis to match congestion to the events held in the data warehouse include:

Information Strategy

The Highways Agency established an Information Directorate early in 2005. The Agency's aim is to provide customers with trusted, reliable, useful and effective information. We want our customers to trust and believe in the information the Agency provides, so that they can make informed and constructive decisions about their journeys. That means the Agency must be able to provide information about current traffic conditions, journey times and any expected delays, as well as suggested diversion routes around incidents and events.

The Agency's aim is to provide this information in a way that is most convenient to our customers - through the web, on the 'phone, over the radio or television and in print. We will be extending the network of roadside variable message signs, especially at important junctions where motorists' join or leave the network.

The Agency is developing other information services, including:

Making customers' journeys more reliable

Improving road safety

Indicators

Deliver the Highways Agency's agreed proportion of the national road casualty reduction target. By 2010 reduce by a third (i.e. to 2244) the number of people killed/seriously injured on trunk roads compared with the 1994-98 average of 3366.

  1. Deliver improvements to the network to reduce the number of people killed/serioulsy injured.
  2. Maintain the network in a safe and serviceable condition.

Public Service Agreement Target

Safety is extremely important to the Highways Agency. We build, maintain and operate safe roads, in partnership with Department for Transport's Driver and Vehicle Operator (DVO) group of agencies. We play a key role in delivering the Department's PSA target of improving road safety. (Safety targets have been revised in this plan to take account of the reduced 'core' network we will be managing in 2010 following the detrunking programme. However, funding on schemes identified and programme will continue on the detrunked sections of the network up to handover of the road to the relevant local authority.)

The Agency's network of roads, motorways, dual carriageways and single carriageway roads (both urban and rural), carries about a third of all traffic but accounts for only about an eighth of all accidents. We have been set casualty reduction targets by the Government and by 2010, compared with the 1994-98 average, we expect to see:

Highways Agency motorways have fewer fatalities than comparable roads in Europe despite carrying more heavy traffic. We are working hard to make our roads even safer. 

Safety is achieved through the application of high-quality engineering design standards based on sound research and has made a significant contribution to reducing accidents. We work with our partners and international colleagues to test and refine new ideas. For example, our Active Traffic Management pilot on the M42 will trial several different methods of traffic management to assist the safe implementation of new ideas. And we work closely with the police to introduce new traffic management methods to the network safely.

Safety Action Plan

The Strategic Safety Action Plan sets out how and what we intend to do and achieve in the next 5 years, between 2005 and 2010 to meet the casualty reduction PSA targets.

The evidence, as we reach the half way mark, is that the Agency is broadly on course to achieve the reductions in killed and seriously injured and by the end of 2004 we were able to report a 19% reduction from the original baseline. The other targets on reducing slight casualties and children killed and seriously injured have also shown good progress.

In the coming years the Agency will not rely on engineering solutions alone to ensure that these targets are met. We have now moved away from our traditional core business as a builder of ever safer roads and motorways to managing and maintaining our network to meet customer's needs and enhance the efficient use of road space.

The Strategic Safety Action Plan sets out 23 key actions to ensure that we meet the casualty savings. In particular we will seek to establish and work with those stakeholders who have common goals in seeking a reduction in accidents and casualties on our roads.

This year we will be developing safety campaigns aimed at four core customer groups with the specific intention of raising awareness of driving safely on the strategic road network. We will be working with partners and stakeholders to target young drivers, the drivers of company cars and commercial vehicles and continue the work that was begun last year in engaging with motorcyclists to halt and then reduce the growing number of fatal and serious accidents.

This year will also see the development for the first time of Area Safety Action Plans. The framework will give guidance to managing agents and Area Performance Management teams in analysing safety performance in their area and seeking wider stakeholder participation across all aspects of safety including engineering, education and compliance. In addition they will help to inform the Safety Action Plan itself and assist in developing strategic policy and target resources to maximise return on investment.

KSI caualty Target Graph

Road Worker Safety

Highways Agency construction sites and the network itself can be extremely hazardous places to work. We therefore continually review our standards and introduce new measures that help to reduce accidents at major road works and temporary work sites. We take advantage of new construction methods and work closely with our suppliers to ensure all workers are fully trained in health and safety aspects for our network and have introduced strict safety standards for our traffic officers.

The Highways Agency is actively developing an organisation-wide Health and Safety Management System. Key deliverables for the coming year are:

Maintaining the Network

Maintaining the network to keep it safe and available for use accounts for the largest portion of our budget at £862 million. This includes ensuring that our winter maintenance procedures are successfully deployed to keep the network running safely. Surveys continue to confirm the network remains in good condition. In order to keep it that way we carry out a wide range of activities, including:

With the emphasis on journey time reliability and the need to minimise disruption to our customers, maintenance takes place outside peak hours wherever possible. In looking to the future we will continue to seek ways to further improve our maintenance activities, for example by:

These will all contribute towards the aim of maintaining the network at minimum whole life value, ensuring the right works are undertaken at the right time in the right place.   

Research and Development

The Highways Agency undertakes a wide-ranging programme of research and development activities, to support the delivery of the Agency's key operational objectives of reducing congestion, improving safety, providing better information for road users, protecting the environment, and delivering value for money. Research is also undertaken to ensure that the Agency's Standards and Technical Advice remain consistent with latest knowledge, best practice and promote innovative ideas.

The Agency (and its predecessor organisations) has a long history in asset-based research, reflecting our traditional role as a road builder. While this type of research is still important, in recent years, an increasing proportion of the research programme has focussed on congestion, safety and the environment, reflecting the Agency's changing role. 

To assist the Agency with meeting the new target for improving journey time reliability, the Research and International Team have requested research proposals from staff and the public relating to the field of Traffic Incident Management. These will be included in the Agency's programme of research and development for 2006/07, which has been allocated about £13.7 million overall. 

Past research has been instrumental in enabling us to implement measures such as quiet road surfacing, automatic incident detection to improve safety, Active Traffic Management, remote/high speed monitoring of road condition, and our Biodiversity Action Plan. Current and proposed research includes studies into the effectiveness of High Occupancy Vehicle or car sharing lanes, lane departure warning systems, fatigue-related accidents, and a range of new Intelligent Transport Systems applications. Underpinning our safety improvements is a programme of safety research targeted on specific user groups or vehicle types, such as large goods vehicles, and specific road accident types such as shunt accidents.

Outputs from the Agency's research programme are widely disseminated, primarily through the publication of research reports, and via the Research compendium on the Agency's website. The Compendium contains all the Agency's completed research projects since 1994, together with the current research programme. Users can also choose to be notified automatically whenever new research projects and reports are added.

Improving road safety

Respecting the environment

Indicators:

Mitigate the potentially adverse impact of strategic roads and take opportunities to enhance the environment taking into account value for money. Deliver the Highways Agency's contribution to the Department's joint PSA target for air quality.

The Highways Agency takes environmental responsibilities very seriously. We have to balance the need to develop and operate the strategic road network with our responsibilities to the neighbouring communities and the wider environment. We strive to achieve this by integrating environmental considerations into all our work. Since the publication of our Environmental strategy in 1999 we have set targets for delivering environmental improvements around the network.

Currently we are revisiting this approach. We have now completed the piloting of an Environmental Management System (EMS) across all our network operations for use by all our contracting partners and ourselves. This will enable us to ensure that the activities we undertake are carried out in such a way as to be supportive of environmental objectives e.g. waste minimisation and the protection of flora and fauna. In 2006-07 we will begin to implement this across the network. This will complement an existing requirement that all of our contractors operate an EMS system.

In 2006-07 we have set for the first time a performance target for the environmental quality of new investments made in the trunk road network. The performance measure we are using is based upon the established New Approach to Appraisal Methodology. The measure will capture the value added by the Highways Agency to the environmental performance of the major investments in the strategic road network which the Agency is charged with delivering.

The main areas of activity for the next two years will be in:

New revised environmental assessment advice - following the release of new advice in 2005-06 the next two years will see the publication of a number of technical advice documents. This advice will incorporate the latest developments driven by research undertaken both by the Highways Agency and internationally.

Air Quality - as part of our continuing support to the delivery of the PSA target for air quality we will be continuing to seek opportunities to implement projects which reduce emissions in air quality management areas. We are giving priority attention to those areas which are forecast to have a compliance issue with the European Union Air Quality directive 1999/30/EC. Currently based on or own assessment work and that of local authorities we forecast that of the 78 declared Air Quality Management Areas on our network 28 may face a compliance problem with the European Union Directive Limit value for Nitrogen Dioxide in 2010.

Some of these areas coincide with parts of our network targeted for improvement in existing programmes such as the Targeted Programme of Improvement (TPI). The Agency will not progress with a TPI scheme which would produce a new compliance problem or make an existing forecast compliance problem worse The remaining forecast areas of non compliance lie on parts of the network where no major improvements are currently planned.

To address these forecast compliance issues we are evaluating the effectiveness of possible traffic management approaches and other possible mitigation measures with a view to deploying these as appropriate in both improvement schemes and on the existing network. In addition as part of our influencing travel behaviour work we are giving priority to those sites with known air quality issues. Smaller scale schemes within our non-TPI programmes are also given enhanced priority if they are forecast to deliver improvements in air quality. To improve our decision taking we will be extending our existing monitoring of the network to strengthen the evidence base on air quality near our roads

The European Commission has now published a revised draft Air Quality Directive and negotiations on this amongst member states have commenced. The publish draft suggests changes which could have a significant impact on the extent of the compliance issue on the HA network. We will be supporting colleagues in both the Department for Transport and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) as the negotiations on this proposal move forward.

We are continuing to research how our assessment methodology can be modified and in particular how to embrace the use of geographical information systems, thus making our approach even more useful to local authorities.

Traffic Noise - the Agency will continue to deliver the programme of noise reduction measures around the network, for example, since the announcement of the list, a total of 60 of the 79 sites have received some form of noise mitigation treatment, mainly in the form of noise barriers. We are continuing to working with the DEFRA on the implementation of the European Union Noise Directive and this year will see further progress in the development of our own network wide system for assessing noise impacts. Research will also commence to improve our understanding of the long term noise performance of the latest generations of quiet surface.

Water Quality and Drainage - working in partnership with the Environment Agency we will be completing much of our research programme with projects concluding within the next two years. Drawing on results from the early parts of this research programme we will publish revised advice on the assessment of highway drainage and water quality. We will also be applying the results of this latest research in the examination of our priority outfalls programme.

Biodiversity - recently completed research with European partners provided new insights into the issues of habitat fragmentation. We will now be taking forward the practical implementation of this research. In particular this year will see the commencement of trials on a number of mitigation measures to address the problem of road traffic accidents involving deer.

In addition to areas of activity above we will also be taking forward two new areas of work. The first of these will be to develop a 'Sustainable Development Action Plan' for the Agency. The development of this plan will be the Agency's response to the UK Government Sustainable Development Strategy "Securing the Future". In parallel and complementary with this activity is the Highways Agency's approach to Corporate Social Responsibility.

Respecting the environment

Customer service

Indicator:

Deliver a high level of road user satisfaction

Customers First

The Highways Agency already has a good track record of delivering services but responding to increasing customer expectations and providing service direct to customers on the network calls for a different approach and different skills. We aim to deliver the world-class quality of service we would expect to receive as customers ourselves. This means considering the impact on customers of every activity we do, whether or not we are delivering direct on the front line or working hard to enable the delivery behind the scenes.

As part of this commitment the Agency is continuing to pursue the vision set out in our Corporate Plan "Customers First", aimed at our staff and delivery stakeholders. It sets out a vision for improving customer service - listening to them and addressing their concerns.

Frontline Role

The Agency informs and interacts with its customers through a variety of channels. We hold many public exhibitions, publish and distribute thousands of information leaflets, exhibit our services at shows and events, and have an extensive website where customers can access information. The Agency is always looking for new ways to communicate with our customers at a time and place that suits them. We are also developing a major projects communications and diversity framework so that we can better understand our customers' particular communication needs.

The Agency has a formal feedback channel through our rolling programme of Road Users' Satisfaction Surveys to help us identify customer concerns and guide our future planning. Our traffic officers are now often the public face of the Agency dealing with people at first hand on the network. They assist at accidents, helping the people involved and liaising with breakdown and emergency services when necessary. Our Traffic Officer questionnaire programme will be monitoring their performance. At both a working and strategic level we work with the Department for Transport, our contractors, the breakdown organisations, road user groups and representatives from industry.

Working with Others

In formulating our policy we seek the views of our stakeholders: for example, the breakdown organisations, road user groups, industry groups, environmental groups and the freight industry. We also host two stakeholder committees, the National Environment Committee and the National Road Users' Committee. Our Chief Executive chairs both committees. They meet twice a year to provide an opportunity to exchange ideas and discuss issues relating to the network to help identify areas for improvement.

International Role

The Highways Agency has a proactive international role. We aim to build good working relationships with road administrations across the European Union and more widely so that we can share information, experience and expertise, in order to improve our roads. Overseas delegations show particular interest in our infrastructure asset management systems, intelligent transport systems, the development of performance specifications and performance indicators, and new methods of procurement. This is, of course, a two way process, and the Agency has drawn on experience from our overseas partners. For example, in February this year, the Agency signed a co-operation agreement with Rijkswaterstaat, part of the Dutch Ministry of Transport, in which we agreed to share knowledge of best practice in roads management.

Stakeholders

The Agency seeks to create strong working partnerships with many organisations. For example, our traffic officers have a strong partnership with the police, working alongside them on our strategic road network. They have worked with us to ensure a smooth handover of traffic management functions and the relationships forged between them and traffic officers is ensuring reduced congestion and safer roads. The Agency has strong working partnerships with planning authorities, suppliers and environmental groups when we plan road improvements or other projects. We have particularly strong links with our supply partners - through the Major Projects Community and Major Projects On-Line - that encourage shared ideas and better working: for example, halving the time to start a roads project from ten to five years. And our strong partnership with the Met Office contributes to our being prepared for all weather conditions. They have helped us to develop improved guidance to the public on what to do in preparation for, and whilst travelling in, severe weather.

The Agency is working jointly on an agreed programme with Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) to facilitate their plans for increased enforcement activity. This has the dual aim of removing non-compliant and potentially unsafe vehicles from the network, thus reducing incidents congestion and improving safety. This work focuses upon Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) and in particular, with the growing numbers of international vehicles using the network. 

Within this programme, we have worked with VOSA and other stakeholders to implement a "weigh-in-motion" pilot which weighs HGVs as they travel along the carriageway and identifies those which are overweight. This improves safety and reduces damage to the road surface and structures. It is also enabling much more targeted and effective enforcement by VOSA.

Spatial Planning

The Highways Agency is committed to proactive involvement throughout the spatial planning system arising from the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. We are working with the Regional Planning Bodies and Local Planning Authorities to influence the preparation of Development Plans such that the adopted policies and allocations will deliver sustainable growth and regeneration in line with the established development targets whilst safeguarding the effectiveness of the network.

Where new development - of private housing or commercial sites - impinges on the strategic road network, the Highways Agency is involved in the planning process to help identify options for the developer to avoid an adverse impact on the network. The Agency encourages developers to develop and use sustainable travel planning - good public transport links, sustainable sites close to essential services, facilities for walking and cycling - which can all help ease the burden on the strategic road network. However, it must be recognised that traffic generation from development cannot be totally eliminated. Therefore, the Agency will work with Planning Authorities and Local Highway Authorities to manage new traffic flows to levels that can be accommodated within the capacity of the strategic road network.

Highways Agency Information Line

The Highways Agency Information Line (HAIL) (08457 50 40 30) informs and advises customers 365 days a year. All advisors are trained to a high level of customer care and are equipped to give up-to-date information on all aspects of the Agency's Business to help customers.

As part of our continuous improvements in the service to customers we work closely with our agents and contractors and a wide range of organisations, including the police, local authorities and the media to ensure that accurate and timely information is available to all customers. We are also encouraging customers to provide feedback on the services offered by the Agency e.g. accuracy of variable message signs, comments about our websites and telephone service so that where ever possible 'real time' responses can be given to the customer and, if appropriate, changes made to improve the service to road users.

HAIL has also become the single point of contact into the Highways Agency, taking over full switchboard functions. Because of the increased functionality of HAIL, and the close links with the National Incident Liaison Officers, HAIL now provides a fully operational 24/7 service for customers.

Feedback

The Agency has developed a new programme for the Road Users' Satisfaction Survey. A national survey is carried out throughout the year. We talk to road users at their homes to find out what they think about our services and their experiences using our network. This survey provides the results for the target relating to road user satisfaction set by Ministers and set out in the KPI table. A full report covering the results from all the questions asked in 2005/06 will be published in summer 2006.

This year we are starting a rolling programme of surveys in each of the fourteen Agency areas. Reports will be prepared on a six monthly basis covering each area. The results will be used to plan and implement improvements in the way we deliver services to road users and to people whose lives are directly affected by living close to our network.

As part of the Agency's commitment to putting customers at the heart of our business in line with Customers First, we have been developing ways to ensure that feedback received from road users and other customers is used to develop the way we carry out our services. The "customer beacons" help inform feedback mechanisms and encourage improvement within teams and services to customers. The beacons all have a real interest in improving the way we deliver services to our customers.

The Agency also supplies a direct customer service to those affected by our road schemes. Whilst road improvements bring benefits to many, not all people are winners. We may need to acquire land to widen a road or build a bypass, and people can be affected if a road is built closer to their property. Where that happens, we will do all we can to help people through what can be a difficult and emotional time. We carry out regular feedback surveys using industry-accepted methods, to find out how well our customers feel their claims were handled. With nearly two years data now at our disposal, we are using the information to understand what matters to our customers, make our processes quicker, better and easier to use and make it easier for our customers to contact the right person when they need to. We will continue to survey our customers and look to improve levels of customer satisfaction.

Customer service

Efficiency

Indicator:

Deliver the Highways Agency's contribution to the Department's efficiency target.

Procurement

Procurement plays a fundamental role in delivering high quality services to our customers - and our suppliers are crucial to our success.  Through the procurement processes we can set standards for levels of service, demand high quality performance and set targets for continuous improvement.

The Agency works with those suppliers who can deliver high quality services to our customers, which improve year on year. The Procurement Strategy Review, published in 2005, consolidates the progress made to date in selecting, working with, and measuring the performance of our suppliers. It also introduced a new procurement principle of collaboration, and set the priorities for the future.

As part of the Department for Transport's efficiency programme, we have agreed the target of improving efficiency in roads procurement through adding value to service delivery of £132 million in 2006-07 and £200 million in 2007-08. Our change agent role in working with Local Authorities is now established with a target of achieving efficiency improvements in the procurement of services on the local road network of £60 million in 2006-07 and £190 million in 2007-08.

In order to support the Customers First principles the Agency's priorities for successful delivery are to:

Only those suppliers who consistently show that they are capable of delivering best value and sustaining high performance work with us.

Administration

The Highways Agency has been set a challenging set of delivery targets, with programme budgets increasing over the two years of this plan. We are aiming to deliver this increasing programme within our current administration resources. In order to achieve this, we will improve our internal efficiency by at least 2.5% per annum. We will do this by improving our business processes and reducing resources in support roles, whilst maintaining or, where appropriate, increasing resources in front-line delivery roles.

Efficiency

Organisational development

In order to deliver the Agency's aim of providing safe roads, reliable journeys and informed travellers - and help us to put customers at the heart of the business - it is important that we continue to ensure that our business processes and systems are effective by embracing best practice management and procurement processes. This is in line with the recommendations made in the Gershon Review. We will aim to deliver our business objectives at the lowest affordable cost while achieving continuous improvement.

The Agency's Corporate Plan, Customers First, sets out our vision for the next five years and beyond for transforming the ways in which we deliver services to all our customers by putting them firmly at the heart of our business. To do this we will continue to improve our understanding of customers' experiences, seeking feedback on all of our activities so that we know what customers think of the services provided. We will also ensure that we, and our suppliers, work together towards the right goals, achieving best value and responding to customers' needs by moving our resources quickly to where they are most needed. 

We have to recognise that public money is not unlimited and therefore concentrate on directing and prioritising our resources with a capable, diverse and versatile workforce that takes personal responsibility for delivering results - and is always looking for better ways of doing things. To assist our people in making a real difference to customers we are committed to removing unnecessary bureaucracy, simplifying our procedures where needed to speed up delivery and make innovation easier. We want to show our customers that we are a responsible organisation, considerate towards people, society and the environment.

Over the coming year we will improve delivery of these outcomes by driving through the changes and improvements needed to put our customers at the heart of our business.

Responsible Corporate Governance

An integral part of delivering improved service is to ensure that the Agency continues to operate sound mechanisms for internal control through:

Risk

The Highways Agency operates a formal risk management procedure to ensure that all risks to our business are identified and receive focussed management attention at the appropriate level. The Board identifies strategic risks to the Agency's business. The key strategic risk areas that are managed by the Board currently are:

Managers identify and evaluate risks to successful delivery of the Agency's operational and control objectives when they prepare and monitor directorate and divisional management plans. Project leaders ensure that risks are identified when preparing project plans. Risk is therefore a standard agenda item in many areas of the Agency.

The Agency has a formal Audit Committee to advise on key risks and control issues and the Head of Internal Audit will continue to provide regular reports on these issues, to standards defined in the Government Internal Audit Manual, and provide an annual independent opinion on the adequacy and effectiveness of the Agency's system of internal control, together with any recommendations for improvement.

Through implementing Customers First and the continued development of our people strategy we will ensure that our people management, personnel and development policies and systems fully support our people in the delivery of our business objectives.

Organisational development

Appendices

England's Strategic Road Network (PDF 134KB)

Annex 1 - Highways Agency Board Structures (PDF 60KB)

Annex 2 - Our aim, objectives and values (PDF 50KB)

Annex 3 - Highways Agency Indicative budget (PDF 40KB)

Annex 4 - Expected delivery for TPI schemes (PDF 39KB)

Annex 5 - Major Scheme Progress Points (PDF 47KB)

Agency Office Locations (PDF 137KB)

Appendices