Guidance: Road condition statistics: Technical note

This document provides a brief introduction on the reporting of road condition and how it is reported to the Department for Transport (DfT). Here is a list of the other sections of the technical note:

In England, there are around 300,000 kilometres (km) of public road. The road network is maintained by 3 main types of body: National Highways (NH), Transport for London (TfL), and local authorities.

routine maintenance - such as clearing hazardous defects, clearing debris and litter, treating ice and snow, clearing drains, and cleaning and replacing signs

renewals - including new road surfaces, and other road works such as footways, cycle tracks, safety fences and drains

structures renewals - for example, the repair and rebuilding of bridges and underpasses, tunnels and gantries

construction of new roads where required

National Highways (formerly Highways England and the Highways Agency)

The Highways Agency was an Executive Agency of the Department for Transport (DfT), and was responsible for operating, maintaining, and improving the Strategic Road Network (SRN) in England on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport. The Highways Agency (HA) was replaced by Highways England (HE) in April 2015, changing from a government agency to a government-owned company. The last year of reporting by the HA was in year ending March 2015. HE was then rebranded as National Highways in August 2021, with the last year of reporting by HE having been in the year ending March 2021.

As the Strategic Road Network (SRN) is of a different nature to ‘local’ roads, NH have additional responsibilities, including technology renewals, such as the repair of variable message signs, cameras, emergency telephones and equipment in control centres