[holding answer 10 September 2007]: The agency's two major spending directorates, Traffic Operations and Major Projects, include several regional-based operating units. The numbers of units have changed as the agency has developed. The following table summarises the position:
2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 Regional operating units 7 8 9 Number overspending against original budget 3 5 6 Number overspending against agreed forecast outturn 0 0 0
Similar performance data are not available for 2002-03 and 2003-04.
Budgets are set prior to the beginning of each financial year and are not adjusted in year. The agency actively manages the budget by reallocating resources where necessary to deal with new pressures and changing priorities to ensure that the overall budget is fully utilised. Hence there are managed over and under-spends against budget at lower levels. In each of the three years in the previous table the agency has utilised over 99 per cent. of its overall budget, with no overall overspends:
Budget Outturn Variance Budget Outturn Variance 2002-03 5,021 4,938 83 670 736 (-66) 2003-04 4,003 3,873 130 651 438 213 2004-05 4,174 4,170 4 623 610 13 2005-06 4,709 4,664 45 755 753 2 2006-07 5,134 5,118 16 1,124 1,117 7
[holding answer 10 September 2007]: The 21 projects listed as “on hold” on the Highways Agency website comprise eight major schemes which were being prepared to enter the Government's national roads programme and 13 route management strategies.
The major schemes and their respective expenditure are as follows:
Project Spend to date A1 Adderstone to Belford dualling 0.696 A1 Morpeth to Felton dualling 4.126 A66 Penrith to Temple Sowerby A66 Appleby to Brough A66 Temple Sowerby to Appleby 0.732 A66 dualling Bowes Bypass A66 dualling Cross Lanes to Greta Bridge A66 dualling Stephen Bank to Carkin Moor 0.583 Grand total for A66 schemes 1.315
Following the regional funding allocations (RFA) announcement in July 2006, the above schemes were not prioritised for funding by the relevant regions.
The remaining 13 listed as on hold are studies known as route management strategies (RMSs). The strategies were intended to develop route based plans for future investment in the maintenance, operation and improvement of the network. With the growing emphasis on regional planning, transport decisions are linked to regional objectives and priorities. In response to this the Highways Agency is developing its forward planning on a regional basis through the recent publication of the regional network reports (RNRs) available on the Highway Agency website. A total of £301,712 has been spent on RMSs.