Highways England Annual Report and Accounts 2015-2016
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Highways England Annual Report and Accounts 2015-2016 Highways England Annual Report and Accounts 2015-2016 Presented to the House of Commons pursuant to Section 7 of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000 Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 13 July 2016 HC 529 © Crown copyright 2016 This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: [email protected]. Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. This publication is available at www.gov.uk/government/publications Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to us at: [email protected] Print ISBN 9781474134279 Web ISBN 9781474134286 ID 2815682 07/16 Printed on paper containing 75% recycled fibre content minimum Printed in the UK by the Williams Lea Group on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office Contents Our role and how to contact us 6 Section 1 Chairman’s statement 7 Section 2 Chief Executive’s review 9 Strategic report Section 3 Overview A snapshot of our performance against our KPIs 12 Performance headlines 13 Section 4 Making our network safer 14 Section 5 Improving customer service Customer satisfaction 17 A better maintained network 19 A free-flowing network 22 An accessible and integrated network 24 Building collaborative relationships 25 Section 6 Delivering the road investment strategy Our major improvement schemes 28 Our work region by region 32 Supporting Economic Growth 44 Our work and the environment 46 Section 7 Our people 53 Section 8 Financial Review 58 Section 9 Principal risks and uncertainties 63 Section 10 Our governance Corporate governance report 68 Board and Committee evaluation 72 Nominations Committee 77 Safety Committee 77 Audit and Risk Committee 78 Remuneration Committee and report 81 Section 11 The Directors’ report 86 Section 12 Auditors’ report 90 Highways England Annual Report and Accounts 2015-2016 Section 13 Financial Statements 95 Highways England’s role is to operate, maintain and modernise England’s motorways and major A-roads, known as the strategic road network. Traffic England: http://www.trafficengland.com/ Customer Contact Centre: 0300 123 5000, [email protected] Contact centre details published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/highways-england Twitter: https://twitter.com/highwaysengland or @highwaysengland App: It’s called “Live Traffic Info”; get it from Google Play, iTunes or Blackberry app store; links and info about the App published at: http://www.highways.gov.uk/mobile-services/ 6 Section 1 statement Chairman’s Chairman’s statement review Chief Executive’s Colin Matthews CBE explains how we have focused our attention on our three key priorities over the year Overview Roads matter to our society. They connect Making our roads safer network safer Making our businesses with customers, and bring friends and family together. In particular, England’s strategic Although it is encouraging that our motorways road network of motorways and major trunk roads and trunk roads have become safer over the is vital, carrying one-third of all passenger traffic years and rank amongst the safest in the world, customer service customer Improving and two-thirds of all freight. there are still too many people who are killed or seriously injured. The 2015 national statistics on To support economic growth and its longer-term the reported road casualties in Great Britain shows vision for a strategic road network, the Government a decrease in the number of people who were allocated £15bn to the Road Investment Strategy to killed or seriously injured from 1,853 (in 2014) to Investment Strategy Strategy Investment Road the Delivering start in 2015. As a key part of this strategy, Highways 1,787 (in 2015). We regard it as our utmost priority England Company Limited was established, owned to reduce this number further. by the Department for Transport. Building on the strong legacy of the Highways Agency, Highways To achieve our safety ambitions will take time, England is determined to deliver the Government’s persistent hard work and energetic collaboration ambitious strategy. with individual road users and many different organisations. As an important first step towards people Our At the end of our first year, I am pleased to report this, we have developed a five-year safety plan good progress. The Board has focused on three about which you can read more in Section 4. key priorities. These are to: Review Financial make our roads safer for all users, including Improving our service those who work on them to road users uncertaintiesand risks Principal improve the experience of all road users deliver the Government’s five-year Road We are determined to improve customer service, investment Strategy. even as the number of road users rise and as increased investment leads to more roadworks in the short to medium term. For example, we governance Our are working to provide more accurate and timely information to drivers; to manage traffic flows better on busy stretches to reduce congestion; and carry out roadworks in ways which minimise report The Directors’ the impact on road users. Colin Matthews, CBE At the same time, we are working to minimise our footprint on the natural and built environment. We Chairman report Auditors’ aim to find imaginative and sustainable solutions to environmental challenges whether these involve taking traffic away from important historic sites or statements Financial helping to protect landscapes. You can read more on this topic in Section 6. 7 Section 1 Chairman’s statement Delivering the Government’s Road We are strengthening our capacity to engage Investment Strategy with key regional bodies such as Transport for the North and the combined authorities. Increased investment is welcome and presents us We are also working more closely with local with some demanding challenges. Delivering such enterprise partnerships, regional businesses large-scale improvements to the highest standard, and developers to achieve highly positive results and offering the best possible value for taxpayers’ for local communities. For example, the Growth money, requires a significant increase in the and Housing Fund, established in the Road technical and commercial capacity of Highways Investment Strategy, has allowed us to plan road England. improvements which can then unblock housing and employment projects, greatly benefiting local Over the year, we have started to recruit people people and enterprises. with the specialist skills that are needed to meet our workload. Our partners in construction The longer-term future companies are doing likewise to commit the necessary resources that the five-year plan We support wholeheartedly the Government’s demands. aim that by 2040 the strategic road network will be smoother, smarter and more sustainable. In addition, Highways England is re-evaluating This work represents a major investment in the how to get the best results in working with our country’s infrastructure, and, by harnessing the supply chain partners. For example, we are best technology, engineering and construction developing a new approach to road maintenance expertise, will bring significant gains to the whereby Highways England will take a more direct country. Accordingly we are already looking lead in deciding when work is to be completed. To beyond the first five years to prepare for the next do so requires us to maintain within the company period of investment. a detailed understanding of road condition, something which in recent years has been done I thank everyone who works at Highways by our supply chain partners. There is more about England and our colleagues across our many our new asset-led delivery model in Section 5. partner organisations for their energy, skills and commitment in getting our new company off to an Working with new partners assured start. The launch of Highways England has also required I am grateful to Graham Dalton who successfully us to forge strong new relationships, notably with led the Highways Agency in the years leading up the Highways Monitor, a directorate of the Office to its transformation into Highways England. I also of Rail and Road, whose role it is to monitor our thank both Ginny Clarke and Stephen Dauncey, performance through regular reviews. We have who retired from the Board in 2015-16, for all they also worked closely with Transport Focus, the have contributed. road-users’ watchdog organisation. The newly- formed 2,000-strong Customer Panel represents our customers and stakeholders across our Colin Matthews network and they help inform our actions by Chairman clarifying customer needs through a range of research methods. 8 Section 2 statement Chairman’s Chief Executive review review Chief Executive’s Jim O’Sullivan, Chief Executive, Highways England Our customers expect safe, reliable, uninterrupted Making roads safer Overview journeys on a modern, well maintained road network. At Highways England, we are responsible We have some of the safest roads in the world, for for the Government’s five-year programme of work both road user and road worker, but they are not network safer Making our to deliver the £15bn Road Investment Strategy. It is safe enough. Each year people that use or work an exciting and demanding challenge. on our network are killed or incur life changing injuries and this is not acceptable. I joined as Chief Executive in July 2015 and it has customer service customer Improving been a privilege to lead the company during its This was brought into focus on 21 February 2016 first year of transformational change. This year by the tragic death in service of Adam Gibb, a everyone across the organisation has invested their traffic officer.