NAO on DfT innovation risk: key governance lessons for infrastructure teams
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
The National Audit Office has warned that the Department for Transport lacks a defined risk appetite as it plans £1.1bn of innovation spending between 2022/23 and 2029/30 on areas such as maritime decarbonisation and sustainable aviation fuel. While Network Rail, National Highways and HS2 Ltd have clearer portfolio management and prioritisation processes, DfT’s central team has limited strategic oversight of innovation across modes. NAO head Gareth Davies said clearer risk thresholds and better data are needed to judge value for money and move concepts into practical deployment.
Technical Brief
- NAO’s *Innovation in Transport* report singles out maritime decarbonisation and sustainable aviation fuel as priority innovation themes.
- Report stresses DfT has not articulated quantitative thresholds for acceptable technical, financial or safety risk in trials.
- Lack of a codified risk appetite is linked to weaker governance of high‑risk decarbonisation pilots and demos.
- Network Rail, National Highways and HS2 Ltd are cited as comparators with more structured portfolio and risk management frameworks.
- Data collection on innovation outcomes is described as insufficient to evidence safety performance or value for money.
- For contractors and designers, unclear central risk tolerances may delay approval of novel materials, methods and digital tools on DfT‑funded schemes.
- Wider implication is that decarbonisation innovations with unquantified safety risk could stall at prototype stage despite technical promise.
Our Take
The National Audit Office has recently scrutinised several large UK transport and infrastructure programmes – including Northern Powerhouse Rail – so its focus on DfT’s innovation risk management will likely influence how HS2, Network Rail and National Highways justify experimental approaches in future business cases.
Across our Policy coverage, NAO interventions in sectors from transport to steel and energy have often preceded tighter governance requirements, so operators linked to DfT programmes in the United Kingdom should expect more formalised risk registers and assurance processes around safety- and sustainability-related trials.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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