National Highways failed to carry out a promised public consultation last year on achieving zero harm by 2040, instead opting for a 'targeted external consultation', which did not explicitly reference the key target, Highways understands.
The news raises further concerns about the viability of the 2040 target, which National Highways has appeared to play down in recent publications and sector conversations.
In its Initial Report for the 2025-30 Road Investment Strategy (RIS 3), the government-owned company referred to a ‘Road to zero harm public consultation starting in 2023’.
Instead, it carried out a ‘targeted external consultation' and has declined to make public any materials used.
The company's official monitor, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), cited the 2040 target in its second annual assessment of safety performance on the strategic road network, published last month.
It said National Highways had commissioned independent research to assess and prioritise the actions it can take to achieve this vision and begun a programme of engagement with ‘stakeholders’ to take forward recommendations.
However, the ORR told Highways that the national roads operator did not explicitly reference the 2040 date for zero harm - which applies both to road workers and road users - in this exercise.
As previously reported, National Highways has also not cited the date in recent publications, including the Initial Report.
A change has been noted in public statements too. In 2021, National Highways chief executive Nick Harris told Traffex that ‘in 2025 to 2030 we will only be 10 years away from 2040 and our aim of getting to zero’.
However, the company said earlier this year that while its ‘ambition’ remains to reach zero harm by 2040, it ‘would not wish to predict the 2040 outturn’.
In October the company’s chief customer and strategy officer, Elliot Shaw, declined to confirm that 2040 was still the company’s target date, stating only that it wanted to get to zero harm ‘as quickly as possible’ and that is ambition ‘does need to be credible and realistic’.
Sheena Hague, National Highways’ road safety director, also failed to include the date when Highways asked the company about the zero harm public consultation, referring to it only as a ‘longer-term ambition’.
She said: ‘Our short-term goal is to halve the number of people killed or injured on our network (compared to a 2005-09 baseline) by the end of 2025. We have a longer-term ambition to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries.
‘Stakeholders across the sector have a vital role in supporting and delivering our ambition, and in 2023 we began targeted external consultation, engaging with over 50 external organisations to lay the groundwork for a roadmap to help us collectively achieve the goal.’
This targeted consultation started in October. It introduced National Highways' 'ambition to these stakeholders and sought to understand how they see their role eliminating deaths and serious injuries, gauge their level of interest in participating in the roadmap and gather their perspectives for achieving this ambition on the strategic road network’.
National Highways has not said what zero harm target date it was working to in this research and declined to disclose the findings, stating only that it had generated potential evidenced-based road safety measures and emphasised the critical role of partnerships and joint ambition in delivering them.
Although National Highways has recently backed away from the 2040 target, the ORR has made it clear that the company will not be allowed to quietly drop it.
A spokesperson told Highways: ‘ORR holds National Highways to account for delivery of the requirements set out in the RIS, which includes the company’s zero harm ambition of bringing the number of people killed or seriously injured to a level approaching zero by 2040. This ambition still stands.
‘In Road Period 2, ORR monitors National Highways’ progress towards its ambition of zero harm through holding the company to account for its safety key performance indicator set by government of a 50% reduction in KSIs by the end of 2025, against a 2005-09 baseline.’
Killed or seriously injured (adjusted) and traffic on the SRN, 2005 to 2022. Source: ORR
The recent ORR safety report noted there were 1,944 killed or seriously injured casualties (KSIs) on the SRN in 2022.
This means National Highways must deliver a further improvement of 12 percentage points (376 KSIs) to achieve its target of a 50% reduction against a 2005-09 baseline by the end of 2025.
In fact, the 1,944 KSIs in 2022 was higher than the company’s 2020 target of a 40% cut, which would have been 1,857 KSIs.
Although this target was met, the ORR subsequently suggested that this was due to lower levels of traffic during the pandemic.
