National Highways 'has missed or is likely to miss' five of its 12 key performance indicators for the second road investment strategy period (RIS 2 2020-2025), including a major safety target.
The national roads monitor, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), revealed the news in its assessment of National Highways’ performance over the last five years, published today.
It noted that the government-owned company 'has delivered significant improvements for road users but must learn lessons from missed commitments'.
'For reasons both within and outside its control,' ORR said, the national operator has missed or is likely to miss the following key performance indicators:
- The number of people killed or seriously injured on the strategic road network
- Timeliness and accuracy of roadworks information
- Corporate carbon reduction
- Mitigation of delay
- Road user satisfaction levels.
ORR said it expects National Highways 'to use this current interim year, before RIS 3 (2026-2031) begins 'to collate the lessons it has learned into a continuous improvement plan'.
John Larkinson, ORR chief executive, said: 'Overall, National Highways has delivered a much better and more efficient network in a challenging environment, and hence those reforms have delivered for road users and taxpayers.
'But National Highways has missed some important commitments. Looking ahead, there is a tight fiscal environment and a crucial need for National Highways to be a key driver of economic growth. The company must now learn the lessons of its first decade of responsibility for the strategic road network, so that it can deliver more for road users and taxpayers in the next road period.'
A National Highways spokesperson said: 'In the last five years we have supported economic growth by completing 30 major road schemes - generating £1.80 in public benefit for every £1 spent on these investments. The number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads has reduced by 39% and we’ve made strong progress on our environmental targets.
'We’re proud of what we have delivered despite challenges including planning delays, the pandemic, and inflation and we welcome ORR’s oversight as we focus on learning from this road period.'
Safety
National Highways' current safety target is to halve the number of people killed or seriously injured (KSIs) on the strategic road network (SRN) by the end of December 2025, compared to a 2005 to 2009 average baseline.
The latest figures from the end of 2023 show a 39% reduction in people killed or seriously injured. This suggests the operator 'remains off course' to achieve its December 2025 target, the ORR said.
The roads monitor was forced to conclude that it is 'improbable' National Highways will make the target, despite numerous warnings over the last few years and an action plan being put in place.
The ORR said it will report on the final position after the Department for Transport publishes its 2025 road casualty data in September 2026.
National Highways also had an ambition to achieve zero harm on its network by 2040 - although this target is seldom mentioned now and appears to have been quietly sidelined, as with previous safety target elements.
It also has a performance indicator (PI) measuring the safety of workers. The accident frequency rate (AFR) for its own employees, and those working in its supply chain, is based on the number of RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013) incidents per 100,000 hours worked.
National Highways' employee AFR at the end of RIS 2 was 0.06 per 100,000 hours worked, compared to 0.05 in the first year of the road period and 0.07 at the end of last year.
The latest supply chain AFR was 0.09 per 100,000 hours worked, an increase from 0.05 in the first year of the road period and from 0.07 last year.
National Highways said 'it is engaging directly with suppliers to fully understand the reasons for the increase'.
Other missed targets/ambitions
- Average delay: The ambition was to be no worse at the end of RP2 than it was at the end of RP1. However, the average delay figure was 11.8 seconds per vehicle mile, which is higher than 9.5 seconds in February 2020.
- Corporate carbon emissions: The target was a 56% reduction by the end of RIS 2 compared to the 2017 to 2018 baseline. National Highways achieved 51%.
- Road user satisfaction: The target was 71% of users satisfied with their journey (based on results from the previous year) - but only 68.6% of road users were satisfied.
- Roadworks information and timeliness: The target was 75% of overnight road closures accurately notified 7 days in advance. National Highways narrowly missed the target with a 74.1% figure.
Delivery
The ORR found that over the last five years National Highways had opened 30 major enhancement schemes for traffic, with another 11 under construction.
It also made £2.2bn in efficiency savings, more than its target, which was particularly notable 'in the context of high inflation during the period, and a significantly altered programme'.
However, National Highways also did not deliver 11 enhancements to the dates it committed, as well as two of its five renewals outputs commitments, 'for reasons within its control,' ORR said.
