WIREDGOV

Amended copy - Highways Agency announces supplier recognition scheme

News Release issued by the COI News Distribution Service on 26 July 2011

The Highways Agency has today announced a new supplier recognition scheme, aimed at recognising efforts by suppliers who demonstrate leading performance in driving down costs and delivering even more efficient and effective customer services.

The annual recognition programme will highlight the important contribution made by the Agency’s suppliers, who play a vital role in supporting the Agency in operating, maintaining and improving the strategic road network in
England efficiently and effectively. Entries for this year will be invited from 1 September 2011.

Suppliers including joint ventures, lower tiers, small and medium enterprises and those from across all aspects of Highways Agency business, are being invited to be recognised through a non-financial award in five key business areas for the Agency:

-Managing down cost/improving value.

-Supply chain management.

-Health and safety.

-Building & sustaining capability.

-Delivering sustainable value and solutions.

Highways Agency Director of Procurement, David Poole said:

"We work in close partnership with all our suppliers and want to recognise the important contribution they make towards ensuring we together meet the diverse needs of road users and the communities we serve.

"It is now more important than ever to develop better and broader supply chain relationships and to demonstrate best practice. We hope the recognition scheme will encourage a more effective, professional, and diverse supply chain that can help us to drive down costs and deliver even more efficiencies."

Companies working on Agency projects who would like to submit an entry can do so between 1 September and 14 October 2011, with planned announcement of winners and runners up taking place in December 2011.

Full guidance and entry forms can be found on the Highways Agency website at http://www.highways.gov.uk/business/32027.aspx

Notes to editors

1. The Highways Agency is an executive agency of the Department for Transport. We manage, maintain and improve
England’s motorways and other strategic roads on behalf of the Secretary of State.

2. Real-time traffic information for
England’s motorways and other strategic roads is available:

- From the web at www.highways.gov.uk/traffic or www.highways.gov.uk/mobile if using a phone or mobile device.

- By phone from the Highways Agency Information Line on 0300 123 5000 at any time. (Calls to 0300 numbers will cost no more than 5p per minute from a standard BT residential landline. Call charges from other landlines and mobile networks may vary, but will be no more than a standard geographic call and will be included in all inclusive minutes and discount schemes).

- Before using any mobile, find a safe place to park. Never stop on the hard shoulder of a motorway except in an emergency. Make sure it’s safe and legal before you call.

- From our Traffic Radio service, available on DAB digital radio and the internet at www.trafficradio.org.uk To tune into the DAB service, simply press the "scan" button on your radio. The radio will tune into all available channels and you can select the new service by scrolling through the channels until you reach "Traffic Radio".

- From Twitter on one of eight separate feeds with live traffic information for each region. For the full index visit www.highways.gov.uk/twitter.

3. Receive our national and regional press releases by RSS and get the latest headlines straight to your desktop the moment we publish them to our website. Choose to receive a national press feed or one of our regionalised feeds - go to www.highways.gov.uk/rssnews for more information.

Issued by the Highways Agency. For enquiries from the media, journalists and researchers only, contact Highways Agency National Press Office on 0207 081 7443

Media enquiries out of hours should be made to the Highways Agency National Press Office (24hrs) on 0207 081 7443.

Contacts:

Highways Agency
NDS.HighwaysAgency@coi.gov.uk

Highways Out of Hours
Phone: 020 7081 7443
nds.highwaysagency@coi.gsi.gov.uk

Alexander Barnett
Phone: 020 7153 4847
alexander.barnett@highways.gsi.gov.uk