The roads monitor has opened up a wide-ranging investigation into National Highways' performance, which it says has dipped in a number of areas.
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) suggested that there were ‘recurring issues’ at National Highways and it might have to review - and potentially lower - the government-owned company’s current performance expectations if it proves incapable of meeting them.
The ORR noted that in its latest annual assessment of National Highways’ performance, published in July, it had identified several potential risks, such as the delivery of its capital portfolio and asset management strategy.
‘Since then, ORR has observed that those risks have materialised, and performance has dipped across several areas,’ it said.
ORR director of planning and performance, Feras Alshaker, said: ‘We are opening an investigation now to help ORR and National Highways achieve a common understanding of what is causing the current dip in performance, and whether it is still reasonable for us to expect the levels of performance set out in the second Road Investment Strategy.
‘We can then put in place any appropriate measures before the end of this road period and set the company up for success in the next, delivering for road users and taxpayers.’
The ORR said that since it was created National Highways has generally achieved its aims and delivered well for road users, adding that it has worked with the company to successfully resolve individual issues before they have significantly impacted road users.
It added that its investigation will look at the root causes of National Highways’ current dip in performance, and whether the company has the right processes in place to deliver its agreed commitments by the end of the road period in March 2025.
‘The investigation will look at whether the company has identified, and is taking, every action that could reasonably be expected of it to achieve the level of performance set by government in the road investment strategy, and at what can reasonably be achieved in the remaining months of the road period.’
The ORR 'expects that lessons from this work will help to inform the appropriateness of performance commitments for National Highways in the third road period' and support the setting of challenging and deliverable targets.
A National Highways spokesperson said: ‘We will co-operate fully with ORR as it undertakes its investigation and look forward to receiving its recommendations.’
The government-owned company added that safety ‘is and will always be our number one priority’, which is said ‘is why our ambition remains that no-one should be harmed while travelling or working on our roads’.
In December, the ORR reported that National Highways is off course to meet its key safety target of halving KSIs by 2025 compared to a 2005 to 2009 average baseline and told it to draw up an urgent action plan.
National Highways has a target date of 2040 for its ‘zero harm’ ambition, though recently it has seemed to retreat from this target or not attach a target date to the ambition.
Last month the ORR told Highways that it ‘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’.
It added: ‘This ambition still stands.’
