Transport Insights

National Highways obsessive secrecy is so extreme that no-one told its chair that it did not publish minutes of its board meetings,

Appearing before the Transport Committee on Wednesday, Gareth Rhys Williams was told by Laurence Turner that similar government agencies and government-owned bodies all publish minutes and was asked:

Why doesn’t National Highways do the same?

Rhys Williams appeared totally surprised by the question. He replied:

Um, when it’s somewhere we haven’t um, consider, um, I inherited that and that hasn’t been top of the list of things to think about, but, um… That’s a good question. Let me run back to you with when we thought about it. Hasn’t, hasn’t come up as something for us to think about before.

Turner pointed out that the Information Commissioner’s definition document for public, wholly owned public companies, “does suggest that those documents should be published, and some of those other transport bodies have done so for 20 years”.

He added:

Now, I appreciate that you’ve not been in post for that time, but if it could be discussed at the board and that this committee updated on the outcome, that would be much appreciated.

Of course, if the board does discuss it, we may never know.