Holding National Highways to account: policy consultation

Consultation status
Open
Date of publication
Closing date
Body
Components

Seeks views on updating our approach to holding National Highways to account.

Our holding to account policy has worked well over the current road period. We are not proposing significant changes to our approach.

We are seeking views on the following proposed changes to our policy:

  • restructuring the existing document to provide greater transparency as to how we apply the principles set out in the Infrastructure Act 2015
  • providing clarity on our role and how we undertake our outcomes-based, forward-looking and strategic approach to delivering the intent of Roads Reform
  • why and when we gather information from stakeholders, including how we work with other government departments and regulators with overlapping enforcement powers

The document will also be refreshed to remove any outdated references. 

Responding to this consultation

We welcome your responses to the questions and proposals set out in this consultation. You can respond online or write to: 

Highways team
Office of Rail and Road
25 Cabot Square
London, E14 4QZ

Please submit responses by Thursday 26 September 2024. 

For further information contact highways.consultations@orr.gov.uk.

Publishing your response

Collapse accordion Open accordion

We plan to publish all responses to this consultation on our website.

Should you wish for any information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please be aware that this may be subject to publication, or release to other parties or to disclosure, in accordance with the access to information regimes. These regimes are primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

Under the FOIA, there is a statutory code of practice with which public authorities must comply and which deals, amongst other things, with obligations of confidence. In view of this, if you are seeking confidentiality for information you are providing, please explain why. If we receive a request for disclosure of the information, we will take full account of your explanation, but we cannot give an assurance that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on ORR.

If you are seeking to make a response in confidence, we would also be grateful if you would annex any confidential information, or provide a non-confidential summary, so that we can publish the non-confidential aspects of your response.

Any personal data you provide to us will be used for the purposes of this consultation and will be handled in accordance with our privacy notice which sets out how we comply with the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018.

Consent

In responding to this consultation you consent to us:

  • handling your personal data for the purposes of this consultation;
  • publishing your response on our website (unless you have indicated to us that you wish for your response to be treated as confidential as set out above.)

Your consent to either of the above can be withdrawn at any time. Further information about how we handle your personal data and your rights is set out in our privacy notice.

Format of responses

So that we are able to apply web standards to content on our website, we would prefer that you email us your response either in Microsoft Word format or OpenDocument Text (.odt) format. ODT files have a fully open format and do not rely on any specific piece of software.

If you send us a PDF document, please:

  • create it directly from an electronic word-processed file using PDF creation software (rather than as a scanned image of a printout); and
  • ensure that the PDF's security method is set to no security in the document properties.