The Department for Transport (DfT) has published its Single Departmental Plan 2015 to 2020, stressing the role of transport in boosting economic growth and opportunity.
The document sets out three other ‘equally important’ objectives: building a One Nation Britain; improving journeys; and safe, secure and sustainable transport.
It lists a large number of existing commitments under the heading ‘What DfT is doing’, as well as giving progress reports.
The DfT says it will boost economic growth by investing in infrastructure, getting the regulatory framework right and supporting the UK transport sector and cites figures suggesting 89.6% of its appraised project spend was assessed to be high or very high value for money in 2014.
The department’s plans to build a One Nation Britain include re-balancing the economy by building the Northern Powerhouse, investing in the regions, and devolving powers.
The document is one of 17 single departmental plans published across government. The Government says these describe its objectives for this Parliament and how each department is fulfilling its manifesto commitments.
It says the plans will improve the way it monitors its own performance and will allow the public to track its progress.
The Government says that although each department has written its own plan, they have been agreed with the Cabinet Office and the Treasury.
It says this ‘ensures that the plans reflect the priorities of the whole of government and can be delivered within the budgets agreed at the Spending Review 2015'.
A DfT spokesman told Transport Network: ‘The four objectives capture the priorities of the Department over the Parliament. Each one is equally important.’
Julian McCrae, deputy director of the Institute for Government, criticised the plans and the DfT plan in particular, pointing out that it has nearly 100 priorities.
He said: ‘The Single Departmental Plans were intended to show how the political promises of the Conservative Manifesto and the Spending Review would be turned into reality. It is therefore disappointing to see that the plans are little more than a laundry list of nice-to-haves, giving no sense of ministerial priorities.
‘Worse still, many of these individual priorities are little more than waffle, which is no use either to civil servants trying to implement the Government’s agenda or to the public trying to hold them to account. Ministers’ failure to produce a single, clear roadmap for Whitehall departments will undoubtedly limit the Government’s ability to fulfil its promises.’
