© National Audit Office 2024

Lessons learned:
Delivering value from government investment in major projects

Cross-government

Session 2023-24
23 February 2024
HC 554

The National Audit Office (NAO) scrutinises public spending for Parliament and is independent of government and the civil service. We help Parliament hold government to account and we use our insights to help people who manage and govern public bodies improve public services.

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Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General

Ordered by the House of Commons
to be printed on 23 February 2024

This report has been prepared under Section 6 of the National Audit Act 1983 for presentation to the House of Commons in accordance with Section 9 of the Act

Gareth Davies
Comptroller and Auditor General
National Audit Office

16 February 2024

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The National Audit Office study team consisted of:

Hedley Ayres, Hassan Muhamed, Riaz Rahman and Cameron Reckitt, under the direction of Lee-Anne Murray.

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Introduction

1 Government invests substantial resources – money, time and effort – in major projects. As at March 2023, the Government Major Projects Portfolio, government’s register of its costliest and riskiest programmes, included 244 projects with an estimated total whole-life cost of £805 billion. Government undertakes projects, whether infrastructure or service transformation, to deliver a range of government objectives. These objectives include supporting economic growth, meeting climate change obligations or making public services more efficient.

2 Government produces guidance for departments on how to establish, capture and evaluate the value they are trying to achieve.1 However, our work on Projects leaving the Government Major Projects Portfolio2 and Evaluating government spending3 found that government does not routinely look at what happens after major projects are completed. We spoke to people with project management expertise from within and outside government. They expressed the view that government focuses more on identifying potential benefits to make the case for investment, and on delivering to budget and schedule, than on ensuring that projects achieve the intended purpose and long-term value. Delivering to budget and schedule are important components of whether project delivery is value for money. However, the success of a project and whether it represents value for money will ultimately be determined by whether the value of the project justifies its cost.

3 For this report, we examined how projects achieve value, including after they are completed, to see what lessons there are for other projects. By value, we mean the difference projects make to citizens, service users or the environment. Similar concepts, such as benefits, outcomes or impact, are often used interchangeably when discussing what a project has achieved. We use the term value to reflect that projects may add value for stakeholders and the public beyond the benefits identified in their business cases. Value is generated by how organisations or stakeholders adopt and make use of project outputs in practice. Occasionally we use other terms where appropriate.

About this report

4 We returned to six projects that received public funding;4 are complete or have been operational for some time; and on which we have reported during earlier phases of their lifecycle (see Appendix One). Government bodies delivered five of the projects. The other is a project by the BBC, which receives public funding but is not a government body and is operationally independent. We interviewed a selection of people who were involved in the projects or are operating the completed projects, and other stakeholders. We used open questions to explore their reflections on the value the projects achieved and how that happened. We focused on the positive factors, and what seemed to work, predominantly post-delivery. We also reviewed published evaluations where available.

5 The case example projects that we looked at were as follows:

The Millennium Dome/The O2 (completed 1999) involved constructing a venue on the Greenwich Peninsula to host the Millennium Experience, an exhibition that was open for the whole of 2000. In 2002, the government agreed a deal to sell the Dome to the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), which now operates the Dome as The O2 Arena (The O2), an entertainment and sporting venue with retail and hospitality venues on the site.

Diamond Light Source (opened 2007) is the UK’s national synchrotron science facility located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire. Funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) – an arm’s length body of the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology – and the Wellcome Trust, it provides national science infrastructure, and works like a giant microscope. It is available to researchers, with various academic and industrial uses.

High Speed 1 (completed 2007), also called the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, provides high speed rail access from London to Kent and continental Europe. It is managed by HS1 Ltd.

The BBC’s move to Salford (completed 2012) involved the move of several of the BBC’s operational and production facilities from London to a new site in Salford, Greater Manchester.

The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (completed 2012) involved developing the Olympic Park (now the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park), venues and infrastructure required for the Games and their legacy.

The Hartree Centre (opened 2013), funded by UKRI and located at the Sci-Tech Daresbury Campus in Cheshire, is dedicated to industrial application and research, helping UK businesses and organisations with adopting supercomputing, data science and artificial intelligence technology solutions.

6 We have not sought to carry out our own evaluations or make judgements about whether the projects have delivered the value that was expected or promised, or were value for money. Given each project was a large and complex undertaking, our observations are not exhaustive, and do not cover all aspects of project delivery and operation.

7 We drew out six main observations (paragraphs 10 to 33) from our examination of the case examples.

In order to demonstrate value, projects need to be properly evaluated.

Major projects can act as a catalyst for growth.

A clear vision, objectives and leadership culture focused on the intended value of the project are key.

Many organisations and stakeholders need to work in partnership, creating a shared vision, through delivery and beyond.

It can take time and additional investment to realise value from major projects.

The potential value from a project can go beyond the value that was originally intended or expected.

8 We combined our case examples with analysis of previous National Audit Office (NAO) work on major projects to develop seven practical lessons which government might consider as it looks to generate greater value from its major projects (Figure 1). We group the lessons around three themes.

Start with the difference you want to make and the value you want to produce, rather than the project you want to do.

Fully consider the wants, needs and concerns of stakeholders (those who will use, operate or benefit from the project) from design through to business as usual, and balance this against your strategic objectives.

Once the asset or transformed service is complete, regularly review the contribution it makes to your strategic objectives and be willing to adapt if it would deliver more value.

9 We tested the lessons with panels of government officials and project delivery professionals. More information on our approach is in Appendix Two.

1 The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA), Guide for Effective Benefits Management in Major Projects, October 2017. HM Treasury guidance includes the Green Book on options appraisal and business case development, the Magenta Book on evaluation, and the Aqua Book on quality analysis. IPA is currently refreshing its benefits guidance and is planning to publish in 2024 the Teal Book on project delivery guidance, which will cover value/benefits.

2 Comptroller and Auditor General, Projects leaving the Government Major Projects Portfolio, Session 2017–2019, HC 1620, National Audit Office, October 2018.

3 Comptroller and Auditor General, Evaluating government spending, Session 2021-22, HC 860, National Audit Office, December 2021.

4 The projects in this report will have begun, and in some cases completed, under different assurance regimes and with different guidance on value and benefits in place. For example, the Major Projects Authority assured government major projects from 2011 and Infrastructure UK provided commercial support from 2010, until they merged in 2016 to become the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.

Observations from our case examples

In order to demonstrate value, projects need to be properly evaluated

10 The value intended and delivered by the projects we looked at ranged from the core, direct benefits of the projects, such as journey-time savings in the case of High Speed 1 and the construction of facilities to host major events in the case of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (the 2012 Games) and the Millennium Dome, to wider value produced by a number of projects we looked at in the form of regeneration and growth or the development of skills in specific sectors. All six case examples can point to evidence of facilitating wider value. We also saw projects create value by showing what is possible. For example, the 2012 Games showed how it designed and procured sustainably, and the BBC demonstrated the value of moving operations from London to Salford.

11 We have previously reported the importance of monitoring and evaluating value. It allows policy-makers to learn and helps them decide whether interventions should be continued, expanded, improved or stopped altogether.5 While all six case examples can point to some form of post-project assessment as to what they have achieved, not all were evaluations of the original project. There were different drivers for undertaking these assessments. Some projects had an initial assessment soon after project completion, such as High Speed 1 and the 2012 Games.

12 Others commissioned research to demonstrate impact after a longer period of operation, which has helped to develop assets further. Some of the stakeholders we spoke with also emphasised how demonstrating success gives stakeholders and sponsors the confidence to invest further. For example, AEG commissioned research in 2017 of The O2’s impact as part of its successful proposals to develop a retail offer.

Major projects can act as a catalyst for growth

13 Several of the projects we looked at have stimulated economic growth and regeneration. High Speed 1, for example, did so in places around the High Speed 1 stations at St Pancras, Ebbsfleet and Ashford, and contributed to an increase in tourism in Kent. The 2012 Games and the Millennium Dome/The O2, meanwhile, were catalysts for development in parts of east and south London. The BBC’s move to Salford has stimulated the growth of the technology and media industry in Salford. It also provided a template for the BBC Across the UK programme to move more operations outside of London to the devolved nations and English regions. The success of the Hartree Centre has been used to try to attract digital and health technology businesses and create high-value jobs in the Liverpool City Region.

14 While those we interviewed said that events or venues built for a specific, time-limited purpose like the Millennium Dome or the 2012 Games have acted as catalysts for generating value, we cannot say to what extent this would have happened without the events themselves, or whether the events accelerated growth and regeneration. However, in our case examples, realising value has required more than completing the project and expecting value to emerge. It has required time, additional investment beyond that allocated to the original project, and ongoing collaboration between public and private sectors, and local authorities.

15 The importance of taking steps to maximise the use of an asset, and therefore the potential value from the investment also came through from some case examples. For example, Diamond Light Source is an important piece of UK national infrastructure. The science community uses the facility to, for example, examine the structure of materials, which leads to the design of new drugs and engineering components that have been applied in a range of industries. Diamond Light Source contributed to the understanding of the virus that causes COVID-19, and which drugs could be used to treat it effectively. This also demonstrates how the value from a project can be wider than originally anticipated. Being able to demonstrate success through monitoring and evaluating has led to the funders of Diamond Light Source to approve a successor project.

A clear vision, objectives and leadership culture focused on the intended value of the project are key

16 A common theme across our case examples was the importance of clarity of vision and objectives, with leaders focused on promoting the value that the project will bring. Any organisation must have effective leadership if it is to deliver its objectives. Leaders must set a clear direction and harness the talents of employees, delivery partners and wider stakeholders towards achieving that vision. The BBC told us in relation to its move to Salford, how valuable it was for leaders to champion the project and be a strong and visible advocate of its ambition and strategy.

17 We found a strong link between objectives, impact, value to users and leadership in our case examples on UKRI-funded projects: the Hartree Centre and the Diamond Light Source. For example, UKRI measures the commercial benefits or improvements to clients of the Hartree Centre or Diamond Light Source’s contributions to scientific research. By focusing on impact and collaborating with users of the facilities UKRI has been able to establish which projects will be useful to industry and the research community. By monitoring and evaluating its projects UKRI has been able to make improvements to its processes and services to better serve its users and demonstrate impact to the wider economy and society.

18 Central to the vision of the 2012 Games was the legacy it would leave on society in terms of economic, sporting, and environmental benefits. The bid received substantial political and financial support from the government and the Greater London Authority. The bid included how the Olympic Park would contribute to regenerating east London, including building venues for sport, business and, in the case of the Olympic village, housing after the Games. The plan and focus on legacy and lasting value of the site was evident in the extent to which it was built into, for example, the design of the venues and the broader Olympic Park (now the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park) and transport links in east London. All venues and facilities on the park are now being used for their intended purpose. The velodrome, for example, has been developed into a centre for elite and community road and track cycling, BMX and mountain biking. A range of businesses and university campuses now use the Games’ media centre, now known as Here East.

19 Government’s decision to remediate contaminated brownfield land to host the Millennium Dome led to the regeneration of the Greenwich Peninsula. Interviewees told us that strong political leadership was critical to the success of the regeneration of the area. The Millennium Dome project was as much about providing a catalyst to turn a large wasteland area into useful land for housing and business as it was hosting the Millennium Experience itself. However, government did not have a clear vision for what the Dome would become in the long term. Its initial attempts to find a legacy use failed. However, government successfully sold the Dome to AEG for use as a music and entertainment venue when it broadened the range of potential commercial uses. The subsequent success of the venue – it is now the most attended entertainment venue in the world − has been an important part of regenerating the area.

Many organisations and stakeholders need to work in partnership, creating a shared vision, through delivery and beyond

20 Often, responsibility for delivering value from a project sits within a project delivery team or organisation. A project delivery team may achieve benefits during the delivery of a project or when the project completes. However, it is rarely the case that a project delivery team alone can deliver the full value of a project. Our case examples show that delivering value often requires a range of organisations and stakeholders to work together and have a clear understanding about their roles.

21 In the case of the Millennium Dome, the developer’s masterplan for the Greenwich Peninsula has been central to establishing a long-term vision for the area. It has support from stakeholders, including the Royal Borough of Greenwich, the Greater London Authority, and the operators of The O2, for how the area would be developed and regenerated. A range of stakeholders told us that this broad agreement on the vision has been an important foundation for the regeneration of the area.

22 The Hartree Centre is a facility used by both industry and academia, so it lends itself to collaboration. The Hartree Centre and UKRI are focused on impact and benefits; there are processes for UKRI to routinely track and report users’ views and satisfaction from project start to delivery. Interviewees also told us that forums held across the Sci-Tech Daresbury Campus and involving industry, academia and the local authority have helped to ensure the Hartree Centre retains a clear focus on achieving value.

23 It is important that government has a clear vision for the value it wishes to deliver and that benefits are kept in focus during delivery and beyond. Our case examples indicate that in some cases it may be more effective for an organisation outside of the project delivery team to take responsibility and accountability for ensuring that the project delivers value. One model is where development corporations are responsible for capitalising on the construction of a major infrastructure asset. For example, the government and the Greater London Authority established the Olympic Park Legacy Company (later the London Legacy Development Corporation) in 2009. It had a budget and planning powers to develop the Olympic Park after the 2012 Games. In 2015, government established the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation. On High Speed 1, while Ebbsfleet International Station has been open since 2007, regeneration around the station had been slow. The Ebbsfleet Development Corporation was set up to speed up delivery of 15,000 homes and to create a garden city. It has developed a masterplan for the area around the High Speed 1 station and is waiting for planning permissions for housing.

24 It is important that the delivery organisation, or project funder, has a clear understanding of which organisations could deliver value from the project, and their respective roles and responsibilities. This may involve developing plans for identifying appropriate organisations, and getting their buy-in and ownership. From our case examples we have seen different organisational arrangements to drive value from assets. UKRI set up a joint venture with industry and Halton Borough Council for the Sci-Tech Daresbury Campus that hosts the Hartree Centre. Since 2010, the number of people employed by campus companies has grown from over 300 to 1,300, which has led to plans for further regeneration, including building new homes. The Greenwich Peninsula masterplan and forum has brought various public and private organisations together because of mutual interests to develop plans for how to renovate the area further, including building a creative industries hub, housing, public parks and schools.

It can take time and additional investment to realise value from major projects

25 Government major projects are complex and challenging. It can take many years to deliver a project, and longer still to achieve the full value, which typically occurs when a completed asset is used. The Millennium Dome is an example of early benefits being well below forecasts, before improving. During its year of operation, the Dome needed to attract over 12 million paying visitors to meet revenue projections, starting with over 700,000 visitors in January 2000. It only achieved less than half the visitor numbers over the year and in January. While monthly numbers did increase following visitor initiatives, it only attracted over 700,000 monthly visitors towards the end of the year.

26 Case example interviewees highlighted the need for time and investment to achieve wider benefits, such as building new housing or creating employment opportunities. In these cases, organisations that can deliver wider value may sit outside the policy area of a project’s sponsor department. The ability of these organisations to deliver value will depend on their capacity, capability and incentives to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the project.

27 For example, we were told that High Speed 1 presented an opportunity for investment in towns like Folkstone and Ashford. The investment has made these places more attractive to businesses and to those who could use the reduced journey times to commute in and out of London. We were also told that in recent years changes in land value had made it attractive for developers to build housing and infrastructure at scale in Ebbsfleet, as originally expected. However, for commercial reasons, the operator of international services has not run services that stop at Ebbsfleet or Ashford International stations since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, and international services have never stopped at Stratford International. Some interviewees told us that local areas around stations could benefit from international services stopping at stations between St Pancras and the continent. This shows that there can be trade-offs between commercial interests and the potential local growth and regeneration benefits. There are also plans in place for further investment and development in, for example, Media City in Salford and on the Greenwich Peninsula. While we cannot attribute all the credit for these investments to the BBC’s move to Salford and the Millennium Dome/The O2, it is likely that both projects made pivotal contributions.

28 Unlocking the potential full value or achieving wider benefits may require investment and action beyond the point at which the core project is completed, particularly where regeneration is concerned. For example, UKRI’s Hartree Centre is in the Sci-Tech Daresbury Campus, which the government designated as an enterprise zone in 2011. Being an enterprise zone meant Halton Borough Council received grant funding to invest in things such as power upgrades, site connectivity and environmental and improvement works. These works benefited existing companies and also made the campus more attractive to technology companies.

29 Our report on Grassroots participation in sport and physical activity found mixed progress towards achieving the objective of increasing sports participation from the 2012 Games. The proportion of adults participating in sport declined in the three years following the Games and we found that government commitment to the sporting legacy had waned by 2016. We recommended that expectations for sporting legacy for future events should be matched by proper arrangements for funding, monitoring and evaluating progress after the event.6

30 Sustained effort in delivering value may include how to attract and retain people with the necessary skills. For example, we were told that sustaining the value that the Diamond Light Source facility provides for science and industry will depend on ensuring that scarce, skilled operators remain incentivised to work at the facility in a competitive skills market.

The potential value from a project can go beyond the value that was originally intended or expected

31 Major projects provide opportunities for additional benefits and value after they have moved out of their project phase and into business-as-usual. Projects are set up to deliver something – a new asset or transformed services – and therefore end when the project is complete. However, the potential value that can be realised from a project continues beyond the delivery phase.

32 The BBC told us that its decision to move its network sports operation from London to Salford in 2011 enabled it to provide more extensive coverage of the 2012 Games than would otherwise have been possible. The investment in technology in Salford enabled audiences to choose between multiple, concurrent live streams of different events or sports at any one time. The BBC also told us this investment has since led to an increase in the breadth of sports it streams online alongside other events such as music festivals. Regarding the Millennium Dome, interviewees told us that the legacy use of the facility was not fully thought through at the time. Our 2005 report on the sale of the Dome found that a complex set of competing objectives, including that its use should have ‘cultural significance’, contributed to the failure of the first attempt to sell the Dome. Having a simpler and more flexible approach to both future uses of the Dome and the land available led to the successful sale to AEG.

33 Projects with a more focused core benefit may be able to identify additional ways to add value. We found that projects that start with a long list of potential benefits may struggle to deliver all of them. Interviewees told us that promising a wide range of benefits can raise expectations, some of which may be challenging to meet, and require time, investment and stakeholder buy-in. We also spoke with Tideway, the organisation responsible for the Thames Tideway Tunnel project. The project’s main aim is to improve the water quality of the River Thames by reducing the amount of waste water that flows into it. As part of its approach, Tideway developed 54 legacy benefits for the project across areas including the environment, the economy, and jobs and skills. It also mapped those legacy benefits to 10 of the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals and reports progress against these benefits to demonstrate how the project produces value beyond the core objective of the project.

5 See footnote 3.

6 Comptroller and Auditor General, Grassroots participation in sport and physical activity, Session 2022-23, HC 72, National Audit Office, July 2022.

Our lessons

34 Our case examples found that it takes time, vision, investment and partnership working to achieve wider value from major projects. We analysed previous NAO reports to synthesise past findings about delivery of benefits. We combined the analysis with our case example observations and considered existing guidance to develop seven lessons for government to help achieve value (Figure 1).7 We tested these lessons with project delivery professionals and government officials. The seven lessons are themed around the following:

Start with the difference you want to make and the value you want to produce, rather than the project you want to do.

Fully consider the wants, needs and concerns of stakeholders (those who will use, operate or benefit from the project) from design through to business as usual, and balance this against your strategic objectives.

Once the asset or transformed service is complete, regularly review the contribution it makes to your strategic objectives and be willing to adapt if it would deliver more value.

7 Existing guidance that we looked at included the Association for Project Management’s benefits management lifecycle, What is benefits management and project success? | APM; the IPA’s guidance on Gate review 5 on operations reviews and benefits management; and the IPA’s guide for effective benefits management
Guide for Effective Benefits Management in Major Projects (publishing.service.gov.uk).

Appendix One

Case example summaries

1 The following figures (Figures 2 to 7) provide summaries of the six case examples we examined to draw out our observations. These are all projects we have reported upon previously either as part of individual audits or thematic reports. The summaries are based on interviews, our previous work and reviews of published documents.

2 Our review of documents focused on project assessments, particularly, evaluations reported by government and/or impact assessments undertaken by an operating body where available. We have not sought to undertake a comprehensive analysis of all published material of these case examples given the volume and time passed since they completed. Similarly, we attempted to speak with a mix − rather than an exhaustive list − of stakeholders to gather views about the projects. There may be perspectives and findings held by others that are not reflected in our summaries below. The summaries should be viewed as providing insights as to some of the value achieved and how. They are not a comprehensive assessment of what these projects have achieved and should not be interpreted as the National Audit Office’s (NAO’s) judgement on them.

3 The information in the summaries below should not be compared between projects. This is because we are reflecting information at the time of reporting, which differs for each project. Assessments were carried out at different points in the project lifecycle and/or the operational phase, using different methodologies and produced for different purposes. The budget and cost figures are in different price bases. Price base and year of reporting are indicated in the example where known. Similarly, we have used published information to report outturn costs, which reflects final costs if known. Otherwise, it shows the anticipated final cost last reported, along with the relevant source.

Appendix Two

Our approach

Our scope

1 Government invests substantial resources – money, time and effort – in major projects. It produces guidance for departments on how to establish, capture and evaluate the value they are trying to achieve. However, we know that government does not routinely look at what happens after major projects are completed.

2 We wanted to examine how projects achieve value, including after they are completed. We adopted an open and appreciative approach in examining our case examples. Our aim was to identify lessons for other major projects based on six case examples of completed or operational projects and an analysis of our back catalogue, tested with panels of experts involved in project delivery.

3 We have not sought to carry out our own evaluations or make judgements about whether the case example projects have delivered the value that was expected or promised, or were value for money. Given each project was a large and complex undertaking, our observations are not exhaustive, and do not cover all aspects of project delivery and operation.

4 This lessons learned report sets out our observations and lessons for those responsible for and/or involved in delivering benefits and outcomes to achieve value across projects and programmes. This report is not designed to provide a comprehensive account of how value can be delivered from major projects but to aid decision-makers and practitioners in thinking how to maximise the potential value.

Our evidence base

5 We conducted our fieldwork between September 2023 and January 2024. We drew on a variety of evidence sources.

Case examples

6 We examined six projects to consider what they achieved and how they delivered and reported value. We chose projects we had reported on previously, and that had been complete or in use for some time. We selected examples that showed a mix of project approaches and characteristics, and where available evidence of benefits had been reported. The case examples were:

The Millennium Dome/The O2.

Diamond Light Source.

High Speed 1.

The BBC’s move to Salford.

The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Hartree Centre.

7 Our approach for the case studies involved:

Reviews of our previous reports about these projects.

Interviews with a variety of stakeholders. We used an open, appreciative inquiry style to find out what had happened and how. While it was different for each example, we spoke to people who were involved in delivering projects at the time, those now involved in operating the assets, sponsor bodies, and other stakeholders, for example, local authorities.

Reviews of publicly available evaluations of these projects along with documents provided by organisations we spoke with.

Document review

8 We used our knowledge management tools and colleagues’ expertise to identify around 40 National Audit Office reports on project and programmes where value or benefits management featured prominently, including post-project delivery. Using these reports we developed initial lessons as to common barriers and enablers to achieving value from projects, which we tested with stakeholders through interviews and panel discussions.

9 We also reviewed benefits management guidance produced by central government and the wider project community to help inform our lessons. This included the Infrastructure and Projects Authority’s guidance for effective benefits management and assurance of benefits realisation in major projects, as well as HM Treasury’s rainbow books, which provide guidance and best practice for delivering projects including appraising and evaluating benefits and value.

Interviews

10 Along with case example interviews we also spoke with officials from government and wider stakeholders involved in project delivery and/or benefits management. We conducted these interviews to inform and test our observations and lessons as well as hear their perspectives around the main barriers and enablers to achieving value from government projects.

11 The government bodies we spoke to included: the Cabinet Office’s Evaluation Task Force; the Department for Culture, Media & Sport; the Department for Transport; the Infrastructure and Projects Authority; National Highways; and UK Research and Innovation.

12 The non-government bodies we spoke to included: the Association for Project Management; the Major Projects Association; the University of Manchester and Tideway.

Panel discussions

13 We facilitated panel discussions to challenge and refine our lessons and test whether they were realistic and relevant. We held four panels in November 2023 that involved a total of 16 representatives from the project delivery community with expert knowledge and/or experience of achieving benefits or value from major projects. Our panellists came from academia, government and the private sector. We had representatives from:

the Association for Project Management;

the Cabinet Office;

the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs;

the Department for Transport;

the Department of Health & Social Care;

the Infrastructure and Projects Authority;

the Major Projects Association;

the Ministry of Justice;

National Highways;

the Public Sector Benefits Management Forum;

Stantec;

Turner & Townsend;

UK Research and Innovation; and

the University of Manchester.

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