Highways Agency

Introduction

Scope of this Annual Report

This Annual Report covers the activities of the Highways Agency during the period from 1 April 2002 until 31 March 2003.

Operating and Financial Review (OFR)

The analysis of the Agency's business and performance and its planned future activities is set out in the following five sections.

Who we are

The Highways Agency is an executive agency of the Department for Transport (DfT) responsible for managing, maintaining and improving the strategic road network in England on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport. A map of our network is shown on the inside front cover of this report.

We have a major role in delivering the Government's 10 Year Plan for Transport and achieving the Department's aim of transport that works for everyone. We also contribute to meeting some of the Department's key Public Service Agreement targets, assisting in:

• Reducing congestion on the inter-urban trunk road network and in urban areas below 2000 levels by 2010.
• Reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured in Great Britain in road accidents by 40% and the number of children killed or seriously injured by 50% by 2010, compared with the average for 1994-98, tackling the significantly higher incidence in disadvantaged communities.

We have ten regional offices in England, as shown on the back inside cover of this report. These help us to maintain close links with our local customers and stakeholders and play an active part in the local planning process. Our organisational structure during 2002-03 is shown at Appendix 1.

Our Role

The Agency's purpose is to provide safe and reliable long distance journeys on strategic national routes by managing the traffic using our roads as well as administering the network as a public asset. The Agency's expanding network operator role has developed rapidly over the past two years and continues to be a high priority as we increase focus on providing a high level of service to road users. We also fulfil an international role by building good working relationships and sharing experience and expertise with overseas road administrations. This helps to promote the value of UK knowledge, expertise and best practice across the world to support UK industry.

To fulfil our role we had a total resource budget in the 2002-03 Business Plan of some £5.5bn, which included £3.7bn of cost of capital charges against the value of our net assets.

England's strategic road network

The English strategic road network is valued at over £65bn and comprises some 5,130 miles/8,255km of trunk roads including motorways. Carrying a third of all road traffic in England and two thirds of all heavy freight traffic, with over 170 billion vehicle kilometres of journeys undertaken each year, it provides a vital service to commerce and industry and has a major impact on the lives of individuals and communities. It is currently divided into 'core' and 'non-core' roads, as announced in the 1998 White Papers 'A New Deal for Transport: Better for Everyone' and 'A New Deal for Trunk Roads in England'.

The types of road comprising the core network vary greatly within and between regions – from single carriageway roads carrying less than 10,000 vehicles a day to motorways taking 200,000 vehicles a day. The core network comprises less than 2.5% of England's roads but it:

• Links the main centres of population and economic activity.
• Provides access to major ports, airports and rail intermodal terminals.
• Joins peripheral regions to the centre.
• Provides key cross-border links to Scotland and Wales and between regions.
• Forms part of the UK Trans-European Road Network.

The remaining 'non core' network caters more for regional and local needs and is in the process of being de-trunked (i.e. management transferred to local highway authorities). The de-trunking programme is progressing well. Responsibility for all non-core roads is due to transfer to local highway authorities by 31 March 2006. Some 676 miles/1,088km has been transferred in 2002-03, with a further 647 miles/1,041km anticipated to transfer in 2003-04. This will leave just 464km to be de-trunked over the next two-year period.

Our Strategic Framework

During 2002-03 a review of our developing role resulted in Ministers setting us a new Aim and Objectives for 2003-04. We have also developed a set of values, representing those behaviours required of our staff and partners in order to meet our objectives. The replacement Aim and Objectives are shown in Figure 1.1 alongside those that were still in force for 2002-2003. We have also improved our approach to planning and performance management within the Agency by adopting 'Balanced Scorecard' techniques. Using this approach we have developed a more balanced framework based on five business perspectives that are crucial to achieving our Aim and which mirror our formal objectives: 'Customer Service', 'Teamwork', 'Improvement', 'Diversity' and 'Best Value'.

The Strategic Road Network carries a third of all road traffic in England

Figure 1.1 Highways Agency Strategic Framework

Aim

Until 2002-03

To contribute to sustainable development by managing, maintaining, and improving the trunk road network in support of the Government's integrated transport and land use policies

From 2003-04

Safe Roads, Reliable Journeys, Informed Travellers

Objectives

Until 2002-03

• To give priority to the maintenance of trunk roads and bridges with the broad objective of minimising whole life costs.
• To develop the Agency's role as a network operator by implementing traffic management, network communications and other measures aimed at making best use of the existing infrastructure and facilitating integration with other transport modes.
• To take action to reduce congestion and increase the reliability of journey times.
• To carry out the Government's targeted programme of investment in trunk road improvements.
• To minimise the impact of the trunk road network on both the natural and built environment.
• To improve safety for all road users and contribute to the Government's new safety strategy and targets for 2010.
• To work in partnership with road users, transport providers and operators, local authorities and others affected by our operations, to promote choice and information for travellers, monitoring and publishing information about the performance and reliability of the network.
• To be a good employer, managing the Agency's business efficiently and effectively, seeking continuous improvement.

From 2003-04

1. To deliver a high quality service to all our customers by:
   • Improving road safety;
   • Making journeys more reliable through better network management and information; and
   • Respecting the environment.
2. To ensure more effective delivery through better working relationships.
3. To implement best practice and innovative solutions to improve service now and in the future.
4. To be a good employer.
5. To be an efficient Agency with effective business processes and resource management systems.

Values

• Customer Service: We put our customers first
• Teamwork: We work together in dynamic teams and partnerships
• Improvement: We encourage learning, innovation and flexibility
• Diversity: We value people for their diversity and contribution
• Best Value: We deliver effective services that provide value for money
• Integrity: We build trust by acting with honesty and fairness

Performance against our 2002-03 Business Plan Targets

Ministers set challenging but achievable performance indicators and targets each year in support of the Department for Transport's overall PSA targets. In 2002-03 we had 14 Ministerial Targets (set against our eight key objectives and supporting the 10 Year Plan targets) and a series of Road Users' Charter standard targets and Central Government service standards (referred to as the 'Whitehall Standards'). Full details of performance against these targets, alongside a historical analysis, are shown in Appendices 2 to 4.

A brief summary of our results against the Ministerial targets is given below.

Figure 1.2 Performance against Ministerial targets