Engineers Against Poverty has released the findings of its investigation into the transparency and ease of access of data on UK public infrastructure.
Assessing a selection of projects, the investigation shows significant barriers faced in searching for data, and that in some instances data is entirely missing.
Maria da Graça Prado, senior policy and research adviser for Engineers Against Poverty, said: “The nature of the infrastructure sector – with high value contracts and technical project cycles – makes it particularly prone to corruption. It is therefore worrying that our investigation revealed a lack of transparency in the sector in the UK, placing a significant barrier to projects being subject to appropriate scrutiny and doing little to reassure the public that funds are being used appropriately.”
For the investigation, Engineers Against Poverty selected eight high-value transport projects overseen by Transport for London and Highways England. The second set of projects included four healthcare infrastructure projects delivered by the NHS Development Authority during the pandemic to understand the UK’s commitment to transparency and accountability during crises.
To date, healthcare infrastructure data for the projects delivered by the NHS is still not publicly available. This is despite Freedom of Information (FOI) requests being submitted in February to fill the gaps.
For the transport projects, data on key stages of the project cycle – from contracting to project implementation – was spread across multiple agencies and websites, creating a lack of clarity on who should be held to account.
Specifically, it found that basic data relating to the completion of projects and data on variances in project delivery (such as variations to contract price, contract duration) was not found on public sources. This makes it hard to understand how much had actually been spent on projects or the delay they may have been subject to, the research team said.
Tender details, including the number and names of firms who responded to the bid for the projects and the reasons why bidders were selected, were also not found.
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Data was scarce for projects that had been concluded and needed to be manually extracted from sources such as annual reports and press releases.
Freedom of Information (FOI) requests were then submitted to all three client bodies in February. The requests were made to help fill in the data gaps found and to measure the responsiveness of public authorities during a time of crisis. They were based on obtaining the data points outlined in the internationally recognised ‘CoST Infrastructure Data Standard’.
The response to these requests was “less than ideal”, the researchers said. Transport for London responded within the legal timeframe for FOI requests but pointed to 22 different sources and websites that should be individually consulted to access the data. After a 35-day extension Highways England (National Highways now) gave grounds for refusal of the request stating that the information would involve significant cost and diversion of resources.
The NHS did not respond in any form to the FOI. The campaign group said that it recognised that Covid-19 had put an unprecedented amount of work and pressure on the NHS, upholding its legal obligations was key to ensuring such pressure did not result in cut corners and value for money being undermined.
The Freedom of Information (FOI) requests were made in February on four Transport for London projects ranging in project value between £15m and £54m: Cycleway 4, Old Street roundabout, Highbury Corner project and Upgrade of White Hart Lane station.
The four Highways England projects ranged between £6.5m and £330m: A30 Chiverton to Carland Cross, A11 Thetford to Attleborough resurfacing works, M62 junction 10 to 12 smart motorway, and Tithebarn link road and bridge in Exeter.
The third FOI request was sent to the NHS and its trust authority to seek information on four Nightingale Hospitals: Birmingham, London Excel, Bristol and Exeter.
Full findings of the investigation have been published today here.
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