Highways Agency

Chapter 1 Introduction

Introduction

The Highways Agency is an Executive Agency of the Department for Transport. We operate from 11 regional offices in nine locations across the country with our headquarters based in London. A map showing the location of our offices is shown on the inside front cover of this Annual Report. Our organisational structure is set out in Appendix 1 and our aims and objectives in Appendix 2.

Our role

Our main role is as a network operator, managing, maintaining and improving a strategic network of 9,380km (5,863 miles)² of trunk roads and motorways in England on behalf of the Secretary of State. Our network is the single largest government asset³, currently valued at over £62bn⁴. A map showing the network is shown below.

Traffic Manager

Key to being a Network Operator is managing the large volumes of traffic that use our roads every day. The network carries a third of all road traffic in England and two thirds of all freight traffic. Our responsibilities as Traffic Manager include tackling congestion, improving safety and making the best use of the available road space.

The 10-Year Plan

Under the Government's 10-Year Plan for Transport, our remit widened from delivering outputs such as road schemes to delivering outcomes such as safer, more effective road journeys. Our 10-Year Plan outcomes were published in the response document 'Strategic Roads 2010'. 2001-02 was the first year of the 10-Year Plan period and saw us make significant progress towards these outcomes.

Business Plan 2001-02 targets

Each year Ministers set us specific targets. These are published annually in our Business Plan, along with government wide targets and our own Road Users' Charter targets. Our performance against the 2001-02 targets is reported in Appendices 3 to 5. During 2002 we undertook a detailed examination of our processes for measuring performance. This highlighted some areas where our methods for monitoring and recording performance against our targets needs to be strengthened, particularly on the Road Users' Charter. Improvements are being made to address these areas.

2001-02 Accounts

There is a statutory requirement⁵ for us to present our accounts to Parliament each year. These set out our statement on corporate governance and accounting practices and detail how we have spent our budget over the year. They can be found at Appendix 8. Our accounts are audited by the National Audit Office (NAO).

Agency network map

Click to enlarge map

Our network is divided into ‘core’ roads that carry longer distance traffic (linking the major centres of population and commerce, ports and transport terminals) and ‘non-core’ roads which carry predominantly local traffic on shorter journeys. Transfer of these roads is being phased over a number of years, with 445km of non-core routes transferred in 2001-02.

² As at 31 March 2002. [back to 2]

³ Source: HM Treasury National Asset Register, July 2001. [back to 3]

⁴ Source: 2001-02 Highways Agency Audited Accounts (Appendix 8). [back to 4]

⁵ Section 7 of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000. [back to 5]