National Audit Office: Governance and decision‑making on mega‑projects (14 March 2025)

Summary

Major projects are one of the main ways the government delivers its objectives. They provide economic infrastructure such as roads, railways and power stations, and social infrastructure such as hospitals and schools. They also support the transformation and improvement of public services. The government spends substantial amounts of public money on these projects.

On 31 March 2024, the Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP), which comprises the government’s largest, most innovative and most risky projects, included 227 projects at a combined whole-life cost of £834 billion. Within the GMPP are a small number of projects, such as big railway or energy projects, that are particularly costly, innovative, risky, complex and/or strategically important. These are ‘mega-projects’.

Governance is the system that provides a framework for managing organisations or projects and making decisions. It includes both formal structures and processes, and people and behaviours. In major and mega-projects, good governance is clear about who has authority and accountability and about the role of the investing organisation in defining and controlling a project. It also emphasises the importance of outcomes, benefits and value, as well as cost.