Written question asked by Theresa Villiers (Conservative) on Monday, 15 October 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 17 October 2007. It was answered by Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour) on Tuesday, 30 October 2007 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Repairs and Maintenance: Finance

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how £144 million will be saved by her Department through standardising and tightening major maintenance contracts, as described in the pre-Budget report and comprehensive spending review.

Answer: The major maintenance contracts referred to in Annex D3.5 of the pre-Budget report and comprehensive spending review are the Highways Agency's contracts for routine maintenance, winter maintenance and asset renewal for the motorways and trunk roads in England. Maintenance accounts for a substantial portion of the Highways Agency annual spend, hence the magnitude of the anticipated efficiency savings.Since 2000, the Highways Agency has made radical changes to its maintenance contracts, increasing their size, combining functions into a single service provider contract, and adopting a performance based specification. This process has encouraged greater efficiency from suppliers. These measures have already achieved efficiency savings of some £80 million per annum.The past process of contract evolution has led to different versions of the contract for each maintenance area. Also, service levels have generally been increased in recent years providing, for example, better support for dealing with incidents on the network and reducing the disruptive impact of road works. There is an opportunity now to achieve further savings by applying a standardised contract across the network and by optimising the value for money from these service levels.

Secondary information