Kate Cohen, Director of Strategic Roads and Local Projects at the Department for Transport, has been appointed as Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) of the Lower Thames Crossing project.

Confirmation of her appointment came in a letter from Jo Shanmugalingam, Permanent Secretary, Department for Transport and Becky Wood, Chief Executive Officer of the National Infrastructure, Service Transformation Authority and the Senior Accountable Officer for project delivery across government.

The full appointment letter can be read HERE but of particular significance are these few paragraphs under the heading Governance and Assurance:

“You are responsible for providing assurance to the accounting officer and relevant oversight bodies that the environmental principles policy statement legal duty has been considered by ministers in policy decisions underpinning the project.

“Although you are directly accountable for this project, 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 DfT’s project delivery and performance directorate and chief project delivery officer 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 National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority.”

(Picture: National Highways)