Corporate report: Progress report on the Government Major Projects Evaluation Review Action Plan

The Government Major Project Portfolio (GMPP) is a collection of the government’s most strategically important projects. Projects on the GMPP are independently scrutinised by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA)[footnote 1]who provide advice and monitor delivery progress. Major projects range from railways, roads, schools, hospitals and housing, to energy, telecommunications, defence, IT and transformation programmes.  At the time of publishing, the GMPP comprises 213 projects with a total cost of £996.3 billion[footnote 2]. As set out in the Treasury Approvals Process guidance, evaluation is a requirement for all government major projects and programmes[footnote 3].

In April 2025, the Evaluation Task Force (ETF), published a review of evaluation across the GMPP[footnote 4]. The review found that the coverage of major project evaluation had increased significantly since the initial review in 2019. Despite this progress, only 34% of all GMPP projects were found to have good quality evaluation plans in place, leaving the remaining two thirds (representing £456 billion in total cost) without good quality evaluation. The report included an action plan to address some of the key barriers to evaluation highlighted in the report. The action plan addressed four key areas:

All actions were due to be completed by March 2026. The ETF, HMT and NISTA agreed to deliver the action plan, working with government departments and major project teams.