Highways Agency - Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers

Our Roles and Responsibilities

Traditionally, the Highways Agency and our contractors have built and maintained the motorways and the police have provided an operating role, primarily dealing with unplanned incidents like collisions.

Then in 2003, a roles and responsibilities review made recommendations to transfer some of the police's operational roles over to us.

In April 2004 the Traffic Officer Service was launched in the West Midlands and we now cover all 2025 miles of motorway in England from seven regional control centres and 32 outstations. We also operate on a small number of major trunk roads where it is essential for us to do so to allow us to work on the motorways.

Where incidents occur, the police retain responsibility for investigating any crime. They will also be in charge at the scene of major incidents on the network where there are serious injuries or fatalities involved. In these circumstances the police may need to close the whole motorway to prevent movement, destruction or contamination of any evidence and carry out a thorough investigation on behalf of the Coroner.

There is only one chance to do this and the investigation must be carried out immediately after an incident otherwise passing traffic may destroy the evidence.

Our role is to help coordinate the resources of the other emergency services, manage traffic and reopen roads as soon as the police have finished their investigations.

When it is safe to do so, the hard shoulder or available lanes are used to allow traffic to pass the incident. Where damage has occurred we will look to carry out the minimum repair necessary and return to complete repairs at a time which will minimise delays.

We continue to work closely with the police and other emergency services to minimise disruption as much as possible and keep roads open wherever possible.

Under the Traffic Management Act 2004, we have the power to stop and direct traffic, close lanes and carriageways and manage traffic and it is an offence not to comply with our directions. This means if you fail to follow directions given by a traffic officer or as indicated by our signs you could face a fine of up to £1000 as well as possible driving licence endorsement or even disqualification.

The police still have responsibility for prosecuting criminals. We work together with the police in order to improve safety and reduce casualties.