To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department takes to audit expenditure by local authorities in England from dedicated pothole funds; and if he will make an estimate of the proportion of that funding used to remove potholes.

The Department for Transport (DfT) allocates capital funding to local highways authorities so they can most effectively spend this funding on maintaining and improving their respective network, based upon their local knowledge, circumstances, and priorities. This considers all parts of the highway network, such as bridges, cycleways, and lighting columns – and not just the fixing of potholes.

It is up to the respective highway authority how best to spend this funding to fulfil their statutory duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980. The Department strongly advocates a risk-based whole-lifecycle asset management approach to local authority highways maintenance programmes to ensure this funding is used as effectively as possible.

Funding allocations can be found on GOV.UK:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/highways-maintenance-funding-allocations/highways-maintenance-and-itb-funding-formula-allocations-2022-to-2025