Transparency data

Rail Transformation Programme SRO appointment letter

Updated 20 February 2024

Sender

Bernadette Kelly, Permanent Secretary of the Department for Transport

Nick Smallwood, Chief Executive Officer of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority

Recipient

Annelies Look and Chris White-Horne, Senior Responsible Owner for the Rail Transformation Programme

Letter

29 March 2023

Dear Annelies and Chris,

Subject: Appointment as Senior Responsible Owner for the Rail Transformation Programme

We are writing to confirm your appointment as Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) of the Rail Transformation Programme with effect from 1 February 2023. This letter sets out your responsibilities and the support you can expect from your department and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.

As SRO, you are directly accountable to the Director General, Rail Infrastructure Group, under the oversight of the Permanent Secretary, as accounting officer for The Department for Transport, with oversight from the Minister for Rail.

Your Rail Transformation Programme forms part of the DfT’s Central Portfolio, under the oversight of the Chair of the Investment, Portfolio and Delivery Committee (IPDC) and is included in the Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP).

You have personal responsibility for the delivery of the Rail Transformation Programme and will be held accountable for the delivery of its objectives, with policy intent and outcomes expected. This encompasses securing and protecting its vision, ensuring that it is governed responsibly, reported on honestly, escalated appropriately and for influencing the context, culture, and operating environment of the programme. You are also responsible for ensuring the ongoing viability of the programme and recommending its pause or termination if appropriate. Where issues arise which you are unable to resolve, you are responsible for escalating these to the department’s Investment, Portfolio and Delivery Committee (IPDC).

You remain accountable to ministers, as set out in the Civil Service code, and should deliver the programme in accordance with the objectives and policy intent as set by ministers.

In addition to your internal accountabilities, SROs for GMPP projects and programmes are personally accountable to Parliamentary select committees. This means that, from the date of this letter, you will be held personally accountable to and could be called by select committees to account for and explain the decisions and actions you have taken to deliver the programme.

It is important to be clear that your accountability relates only to implementation, within the agreed terms in this letter; it will remain for the minister to account for the relevant policy decisions and development.

More information on this is set out in giving evidence to select committees - guidance for civil servants, sometimes known as the Osmotherly Rules. Information on the roles and responsibilities of the SRO are detailed in the Infrastructure and Project Authority’s guidance on the role of the senior responsible owner. You should also make yourself familiar with the Government Functional Standard for Project Delivery, the requirements of the Government Project Delivery Framework, and the guidance and requirements for project delivery as set by the Department for Transport’s Portfolio and Project Delivery Directorate (DPPDD).

Time commitment and tenure

This will be a full-time role (which you fill jointly as a job share) to enable effective delivery of the role and to enable you to execute your responsibilities in full.

You are expected to undertake this role until the programme’s anticipated closure in 2026. Progress towards this will be reflected in your personal objectives. Any changes to the agreed time commitment or tenure of the role, as set out above, will require both departmental and Infrastructure & Projects Authority consent.

Objectives and performance criteria

The policy intent supported by this Rail Transformation Programme is to deliver a simpler and better railway for the people of Britain, in accordance with the objectives set out in the plan for rail white paper. The programme will lead and drive the achievement of benefits through fundamental structural, commercial and workforce reform to drive a better passenger and freight customer experience across the rail sector. Great British Railways will be created, to bring track, train, and whole system finance under a single ‘guiding mind’ and tackle the fundamental inefficiency caused by the fragmentation of the railway system. It will re-energise the private sector to focus on reliability, performance, and efficiency, and create an environment for the private sector to play a bigger and better role in delivering innovation and efficiency. Fares, ticketing and retail experience for the passenger will be modernised, and workforce reform will tackle outdated working practices.

Any proposed changes to scope which impacts on this intent or the realisation of benefits must be authorised by IPDC and may be subject to further levels of approval.

Your objectives and performance criteria which relate to the programme are:

• providing overall programme leadership, strategic direction, and decision-making, and ensuring alignment with any changes in political or business priorities

• realisation of programme outcomes and benefits and ensuring that benefits monitoring processes are established and maintained

• ensuring the programme is governed responsibly, assured and scrutinised appropriately, reported honestly and escalated as necessary. You will appoint a qualified rail transformation board, which you will chair

• ensuring a plan with appropriate budget and resources is in place for programme delivery, and appropriate risk and issue management processes are in place

• owning the programme’s business case and assuring ongoing viability; any significant concerns about feasibility, value for money, resourcing, regularity or propriety are to be referred to the accounting officer

• ensuring cross-programme alignment and integration through collaboration with relevant rail sector stakeholders and organisations

• appointing, advising and coaching the programme director to lead day-to-day programme delivery on your behalf

• maintaining alignment and integration with the Rail Passenger Services programme; working with the Rail Passenger Services programme leadership to ensure that national rail contracts and the development of subsequent passenger services contracts is aligned with the policy intent of the Rail Transformation Programme, and ensuring aligned governance between the 2 programmes for associated key decisions

• supporting alignment with wider departmental objectives and policies

Your personal objectives and performance criteria will be linked to specific programme deliverables to be confirmed through ongoing planning activities.

You are expected to run your programme in accordance with the Government Functional Standard for Project Delivery, the other Functional Standards as applicable to this programme and the requirements of the Government Project Delivery Framework.

Extent and limit of accountability

Finance and Controls

HM Treasury spending controls will apply on the basis set out within the department’s delegated authority letter. Where the programme exceeds the delegated authority set by HM Treasury, the Treasury Approval Point process will apply, and the details of each approval process must be agreed with your HM Treasury spending team. You should consult departmental finance colleagues on how to go about this.

You should note that where expenditure is considered novel, contentious, repercussive, or likely to result in costs to other parts of the public sector, HM Treasury approval will be required, regardless of whether the programme expenditure exceeds the delegated authority set by HM Treasury. If in doubt about whether approval is required you should, in the first instance, consult departmental finance colleagues before raising with the relevant HM Treasury spending team.

The overall estimated budget, resourcing requirements and tolerances for your programme will be agreed as part of the approval process. You will be expected to deliver within these tolerances and report quarterly on these as part of GMPP reporting.

You should operate at all times within the rules set out in managing public money. In addition, you must be mindful of, and act in accordance with, the specific HM Treasury delegated limits and Cabinet Office controls relevant to the Rail Transformation Programme. Information on these controls can be found here: Cabinet Office controls.

Delegated authority

You are authorised to:

• approve programme expenditure within the limits set out in your letter of financial delegation
• agree programme rescheduling, provided you are satisfied that the expenditure can be accommodated under the annual expenditure limit, as agreed with Treasury, in which the rescheduled expenditure would now fall; rescheduling beyond this must be agreed with IPDC, ministers, and Secretary of State as appropriate
• recommend to IPDC, ministers and Secretary of State the need to either pause or terminate the programme where necessary and in a timely manner

These authority limits are subject to change and other conditions, or tolerances may be set as part of the business case approval and ongoing monitoring processes which you should then operate within.

Where issues arise, which take you outside of these authority limits and which you are unable to resolve, you are responsible for escalating these issues to IPDC, ministers and Secretary of State.

Appointments

You should ensure that a fully dedicated Rail Transformation Programme director is appointed with a 100% commitment of their time to that role, per the recent (March 2023) IPA assurance review recommendation, to support you in the management of this programme. You should make other appointments as required for the control and delivery of your programme within your delegated authority.

Governance and assurance

You should pay attention to ensuring effective governance for your programme, including the establishment of a programme board function with appropriate membership and clear terms of reference.

As primary owner, you must ensure that the programme secures business case approval from IPDC, Cabinet Office and HMT. You should also ensure that the programme remains aligned to the strategic outcomes, costs, timescales, and benefits in line with the approved business case as well as monitoring the context within which the programme is being delivered to ensure it remains valid.

Where a change impacts the scope, costs, benefits, or planned delivery milestones agreed as part of an agreed business case, you are responsible for following the agreed change request approval process and setting a new, approved, business case baseline.

You should ensure that an accounting officer assessment is completed alongside the approval of the next iteration of the programme business case and that this is published on GOV.UK as part of the government’s transparency requirements on major projects. You are responsible for bringing to the attention of the accounting officer any material changes in the programme which could require a new accounting officer assessment to be completed and published. Guidance on completing accounting officer assessments for major projects is available from HM Treasury.

Although you are directly accountable for this programme, you are also expected to support delivery of the department’s overall strategic objectives. This means that you are expected to work collaboratively with other SROs and project directors in adjacent projects and programmes and with the Department’s Portfolio and Project Delivery Directorate and portfolio director to manage dependencies, resources, schedules, and funding to support delivery of the overall change the department needs to achieve its strategic objectives.

You should ensure that appropriate and proportionate assurance is in place and agree on the level and frequency of assurance reviews through the maintenance of an integrated assurance and approvals plan. You should develop this plan and its maintenance in collaboration with the departmental assurance coordinator and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.

Programme status, reporting and transparency requirements

The programme status at the date of your appointment is reflected in the most recent quarterly return on the Rail Transformation Programme to the Infrastructure and Projects Authority and is the agreed position as you continue your formal ownership of the programme.

You are responsible for ensuring the honest and timely reporting on the position of the programme to the Infrastructure and Projects Authority while it remains on the GMPP and for providing reports and information to the Department for Transport portfolio management office as required. Information on the programme will be published annually by the Infrastructure and Project Authority.

You are responsible for publishing on GOV.UK a summary of the accounting officer assessment completed alongside the approval of the next iteration of the programme business case and summaries of any subsequent assessments should they be required.

Development and support

As graduates of the Major Projects Leadership Academy, you are expected to maintain your continuing professional development as a project leader, including your status as an accredited assurance reviewer. To maintain your accreditation, you will be required to participate in a review at least once every 12 months.

The department will assist you in securing the necessary resources to support the Programme, and will set clear guidance, requirements and standards, which align to the Government Functional Standard on Project Delivery, to enable good governance and effective delivery. You will be part of the department’s cohort of major project leaders who will be expected to support each other, share good practice and lessons learned and to collectively develop solutions. You should liaise with the department’s head of profession for project delivery to discuss the maintenance and development of your delivery and leadership skills.

The Infrastructure and Projects Authority will be available to you for support, advice, and assurance throughout the programme’s time on the GMPP.

The programme is already part of the Department for Transport Tier 1 portfolio; IPDC continues to provide ongoing oversight and support and will take steps to help resolve and escalate risks, issues or constraints that are acting as a blocker to successful delivery.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you every success in your role as SRO.

Yours sincerely,

[Signed]

Dame Bernadette Kelly DCB

Permanent Secretary, Department for Transport

[Signed]

Nick Smallwood

Chief Executive Officer, Infrastructure and Projects Authority

Conformation of acceptance of appointment

I confirm that I accept the appointment of Senior Responsible Owner for the Programme, including my personal accountability for implementation, as set out in the letter above.

[Signed]

Annelies Look

RTP SRO

[Signed]

Chris White-Horne

RTP SRO

29 March 2023