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Better Business Cases guidance: Public value at pace

By Nick Butler

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This Better Business Cases guidance is for New Zealand government agencies wanting to develop business cases that deliver more public value sooner. It summarises the Better Business Case framework, shows you where you can get support and training, and looks at how to set up projects to maximise value.

Better Business Cases (BBC) is the name for the guidance that the New Zealand Treasury gives government agencies on developing business cases. It was developed with the UK Treasury and has been adopted in the EU for infrastructure projects.

Its goal is to enable government to make smart investment decisions that maximise public value.

BBC is for both projects and programmes. To keep it simple, we’re going to mainly look at projects. Here’s the Better Business Cases guidance on programmes .

Better Business Cases guidance

Here are the New Zealand Treasury’s Better Business Cases resources .

You might also find the UK guide (PDF) useful.

Better Business Cases training and support

Treasury support.

The Treasury offers Better Business Case Clinics for high-risk, high-value public sector programmes and projects. You’ll need to do the Risk Profile Assessment (RPA) to see if you’re eligible. To learn more, contact your Treasury Vote analyst or [email protected] .

The Treasury also runs BBC overview sessions. You can contact [email protected] to join the waitlist.

There are two levels of Better Business Case training available:

• Practitioner

You can find New Zealand BBC training providers on the APMG website .

Learn more about support and training .

Which projects need to follow the Better Business Cases model

Government agencies must follow the Treasury guidance for all significant investment proposals. Significant means projects that:

• have important impacts for your agency, sector or clients, or for the government’s strategies, or
• high risk, or
• funded via public private partnership or other new approaches, or
• reliant on new Crown funding or support, or
• estimated to have whole-of-life costs (WoLC) over $15 million.

Learn more about when a Better Business Case is needed .

All business cases for government projects should share the goal of maximising public value. The depth of analysis will vary with the project’s strategic impact, size and risk.

Scoping your projects to maximise value and minimise risk

Research shows that small projects are less risky and more likely to deliver value . Based on 50,000 software projects, the 2018 Standish Group report found that small projects succeed 4 times more often than large ones.

Since reducing project size cuts both cost and risk, you want to identify the smallest project that will deliver the most public value.

Breaking down wider goals into smaller projects

The BBC Investment Logic Mapping workshops can help you break down wider goals into small projects. This process maps Problems or Opportunities through to Solutions. Treasury suggest you follow Victoria’s guidance on investment logic mapping .

Another tool that we’ve found useful is User story mapping . This is a way of breaking down work by focusing on the benefits you’ll deliver end users.

As well as being small and valuable, you want solutions that aren’t dependent on any other work to deliver the value.

Delivering projects in priority order

Once you have a sense of the relative value and size of your independent solutions, you can prioritise those that deliver the most value for the least effort. This is often a trade-off so having some tools can help. This prioritisation guidance is designed for Agile projects but the tools it covers are broadly applicable.

You can now create a business case for your top priority solution. Because the project is small, it’ll be easier to create the business case. There’ll be less complexity to wrestle with and lower-risk projects need less-detailed business cases.

Moreover, it’s easier to manage smaller projects. Monitoring, control and evaluation are simpler. And having goals that can be achieved in the near term is a powerful motivator for project teams.

On top of that, you’ll also learn more about the project domain. You’ll get a better understanding of the users and stakeholders, and the technical and operational environments. This will help when you tackle the next highest priority solution.

At Boost, we offer free project scoping and discovery workshops to help our government clients prepare business cases.

Pilot projects to test innovative solutions

Piloting new ideas, tools or solutions is one specific way you can cut scope and risk, and deliver value sooner. You get to test feasibility before making a larger investment.

The Better Business Cases guidance points out that Agile project management is a good way to do this . On an Agile project, you deliver testable working solutions from the first iteration. This means you start learning within weeks, not months or years.

The guidance advises you keep these projects small enough to be funded by the organisation (i.e. under the CE’s Delegated Financial Authority). This also means the business case doesn’t need to go to Cabinet.

Getting started with Better Business Cases

Business cases start with a goal identified in your agency’s business and strategic planning. The business case should identify the way of achieving this goal that will deliver the most public value. As a result, decision makers can assess if the project is going to have the strategic impact needed and if the benefits will outweigh the costs and risks.

For BBC, this means you need to complete a:

• Risk Profile Assessment (RPA) so the approach, support and oversight match the level of risk
• Business Case scoping document so Treasury and relevant system leads can agree to your approach and level of effort
• Strategic Assessment showing your agency has agreed on the strategic need for the programme.

By assessing the project’s strategic impact, scope and risks, you can work out how detailed your business case needs to be.

The structure of Better Business Cases

The Better Business Cases guidance splits business cases into different:

• parts (the five-case model)
• approval processes.

The five-case model

You create your overall business case in five parts:

• Strategic case — the benefits
• Economic case — the options
• Commercial case — the marketplace and procurement
• Financial case — affordability and funding
• Management case — delivery, monitoring and evaluation

You can see how to complete the five cases below.

Approval processes

In BBC, some business cases need two-stage approvals, and some just one.

Two-stage approvals

High-risk, large-scale projects follow the Cabinet-mandated two-stage approval process . You get your business case approved in two stages:

• Indicative business case (IBC) — High-level analysis of the preferred way forward (a shortlist of options) and a plan for how you’ll assess the shortlist and the marketplace. Also known as a Programme business case (PBC).
• Detailed business case — The Preferred option from the shortlist and the plan to implement and procure it.

The IBC will focus most on the Strategic case. It will focus less on the Economic and Financial, and less still on the Commercial and Management cases.

Single-stage approval

Lower-risk, lower-cost projects can use a single-stage business case .

This combines the Indicative and Detailed Business Cases and goes into less detail.

Implementation business case

Both approval processes have an additional stage. The Implementation business case is for getting sign-off on your preferred supplier and planned contracts. It also reflects any changes that came out of previous approvals.

Programme and project approvals at a glance

This graphic sums up the planning and approval process for programmes and projects.

How to complete the five cases

Here is a summary of what each case covers with links to tools to help you complete it.

Strategic case

This shows the benefits the project will deliver, and how these align with your agency’s strategy. These benefits should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound).

You’ll cover:

• organisational overview
• alignment to strategic intentions
• investment objectives
• potential scope and services
• main benefits
• key constraints, dependencies and assumptions.

Tools for preparing the Strategic case

Economic case

This assesses a range of options to find what will deliver the best public value. You run these options though a cost-benefit analysis that includes wellbeing .

These options will include:

• the status quo (‘do nothing new’)
• an achievable ‘do minimum’ that meets essential requirements
• the preferred way forward (if this is different).
• critical success factors
• long-list options
• the preferred way forward
• short-list options and options assessment
• economic assessment of the short-list options
• non-monetary benefits and costs
• risk and uncertainty
• testing the robustness of the options analysis
• preferred option.

Tools for preparing the Economic case

Commercial case

This shows how your procurement approach will work for both your agency and your suppliers, and that it is feasible in the relevant marketplace.

• Procurement strategy
• Required services and outputs
• Risk allocation
• Payment mechanisms
• Contractual arrangements
• Personnel implications
• Accountancy treatment
• Evaluation of best and final offers
• The negotiated deal and contractual arrangements
• Confirmation of Commissioner’s support

Tools for preparing the Commercial case

Government procurement made simple

Financial case

Here you show that the project is affordable and that funding is set up.

• financial costing model
• Capex and Opex requirements
• financial implications of the deal
• impact on balance sheet
• overall affordability and funding
• confirmation of support.

Tools for preparing the Financial case

Management case

This shows how you’ll deliver, monitor and evaluate the project.

• programme management governance (if it’s a programme not a project)
• project management
• change management
• benefits management
• assurance and risk management
• contract management
• post-project evaluation

The level of detail needed

As noted earlier, the higher the risk and bigger the scope, the more detail your business cases need.

This table shows what’s required.

Project assurance

All projects will cover project assurance in the Management case.

If your project is ICT-enabled and high-risk, then you must have a costed assurance plan. See the Assurance section of the high risk project guidance and the government assurance guidance to learn more.

We’ve put together a guide to creating a simple Agile assurance plan . This follows the government guidance on assurance for Agile delivery . As the guidance points out, in Agile “assurance is part of the delivery process, with risk management embedded into day-to-day operations and governance arrangements.”

Create public value by cutting the cost of delay

When your agency identifies a problem that needs solving, or an opportunity to deliver benefits, any delay comes at a cost. The problems persist, the benefits remain unrealised.

When you develop business cases, you want to cut the cost of delay. You can do this by scoping the project to the work which will deliver the most value in the shortest time. Happily, this also makes it easier to create the business case. You get it up for approval sooner. Signed-off projects are lower risk and easier to manage. And that means they finish faster and deliver value early.

The best business cases deliver public value at pace.

More resources for government agencies

Government Digital Service Design Standard made simple

Government Marketplace: Digital experience services procurement

NZ Government consultancy panel: how to use it

All of government Web Services Panel: how to use it

Questions and feedback

If you have any questions or feedback, email me at: [email protected]

Graphics and tables by the New Zealand Treasury. (CC BY 4.0) licence .

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Business case guidance and templates for TEIs

He aratohu tono pakihi me ngā tauira mahi mā ngā tei.

This page provides information about the Government’s approach to business cases and links to guidance and templates to help tertiary education institutions (TEIs) prepare a business case.

Why business cases are required

The Government is committed to improving the quality and consistency of business cases prepared by capital-intensive Crown agencies when these institutions seek funding or a decision from the Crown. 

As a result, the Treasury has published guidance and templates addressing the business case requirements for departments and Crown entities. Using the Treasury's guidance as a basis, the Tertiary Education Commission (the TEC) has developed its own guidance and templates for TEIs.

Further detailed information is available on The Treasury website .

What TEIs need to do

If you have any investment or borrowing proposal that requires approval from the TEC, Secretary for Education and/or ministers (including Cabinet) it must be accompanied by a business case developed using the process and templates outlined in these three pages:

Step 1: Business case scoping document Step 2: Business case development Step 3: Business case assessment.

Using this approach provides business case writers with clear processes and criteria to follow when engaging with the Crown on investment or borrowing proposals.

We strongly encourage all TEIs to adopt and integrate the following guidelines and templates into their internal management and council processes. However, their use is not mandatory for most internally funded projects.

The five case model

The Government has a standardised business case model known as Better Business Cases for Capital Proposals. This proven five-case model is designed to provide explicit assurance to ministers, stakeholders and business case assessors that the proposed investment:

• is supported by a robust case for change, the ‘strategic case’
• maximises value for money, the ‘economic case’
• is commercially viable, the ‘commercial case’
• is financially affordable, the ‘financial case’
• is achievable, the ‘management case’.

The approach helps ensure each of the key aspects of a robust investment proposal is explicitly and systematically addressed as part of the business case development process.

Single-stage and two-stage business cases

All business cases follow the five-case model but are broadly differentiated as follows: 

• Programme business cases are used as a basis for seeking early approval to start a preferred programme of work, to develop subsequent business cases and to review the ongoing viability of the programme.
• Project business cases are divided into three categories:
• Single-stage business case – typically used for proposals that have a relatively low level of investment and risk profile
• Single-stage (light) business case – applies to investment proposals with lower levels of delegated authority, that are very small scale and/or very low risk
• Two-stage business case – made up of an indicative business case and a detailed business case. These are applicable to high risk proposals with a whole-of-life cost (WOLC) over $25 million, that could expose the Government to significant fiscal or ownership risk. 

The number of stages mainly relates to the number of points at which decision-makers can decide whether the writers of the business case should continue to develop the proposal further. Whether a business case is a single-stage or two-stage also depends on whether the proposal is likely to involve a programme of work or is high/low value or high/low risk as summarised in the table below.

Deciding whether a proposal requires a programme, single-stage or two-stage business case is normally determined following submission of a scoping document. The TEC and the business case owner then use this scoping document to reach agreement on key decisions such as:

• whether the solution to the problem being addressed by the business case is likely to be a discrete project, or would be better addressed through a larger programme of work
• whether further work is required to clarify the problem/opportunity and the possible options, benefits, strategic responses and solutions. Most business cases require an Investment Logic Mapping (PDF 37 KB) (PDF, 37 Kb) exercise
• the level and depth of analysis required in various stages of the development of the business case
• the level and depth of independent quality assurance required in various stages of the development of the business case
• the timing and nature of engagement and decisions required including how these fit with other processes required by the TEI (ie, council approval) or by the TEC (ie, internal review, agreeing borrowing conditions, recommendations to Ministry of Education (MoE) ).

We also encourage and support TEIs, as a matter of good practice, applying the best available tools to assess the scale and risk of the proposal, such as the Risk Profile Assessment tool . 

Quality assurance

During the scoping phase we, and the TEI, will agree on whether any and what type of concurrent third-party (independent) quality assurance is required to support the development of a business case.

The purpose of quality assurance is twofold:

• business case assessors obtain assurance that an appropriate level of rigour has been applied to the analysis of key aspects of the business case. It also provides assessors with a degree of assurance the business case is of an acceptable quality prior to review
• business case owners and writers obtain independent evidence to support the level and depth of analysis they have applied to the development of a business case.

The main purpose of independent quality assurance is to save business case assessors, business case owners and business case writers time and effort in their respective roles.

We and the TEI will agree the level and scope of any independent quality assurance during the early scoping phases of the development of an investment proposal. This can range from a Gateway review for all high risk projects to an independent review by a third party for programmes of lower risk and lower value proposals.

Business case review and assessment

When considering a preferred solution or investment proposal, we need to be satisfied the evidence provided demonstrates to a greater or lesser degree that the investment proposal demonstrates, contributes, supports or identifies these factors:

• Strategic alignment  – identifies and contributes to the Government’s stated outcomes for tertiary education as set out in the Tertiary Education Strategy , and other strategies relevant to the TEI(s) and/or the business case
• Value for money  – demonstrates value-for-money for the Crown, measured against a range of possible options, and aligns to the investment objectives agreed between the TEC and the TEI(s)
• Tertiary network  – contributes to a balanced network of provision (i.e. geographically and/or academically), with more focus on national and regional solutions and less on individual local institution specific approaches
• Stakeholders  – supported by key stakeholders (including, as appropriate, staff, students, other providers, industry and advisory organisations, business groups, and central and local government) 
• Affordability  – contributes to the current and future financial viability and sustainability of the TEI(s) (and other TEI's, if applicable) and is affordable and justified as part of long-term capital asset management plan(s)
• Risk – identifies and appropriately manages or mitigates key areas of risk and uncertainty that could threaten the success of the proposal, its implementation including any regional/national risks and/or risks to the Crown.

The specific assessment criteria that we will use in each of the five cases of a business case alongside the assessment criteria listed above is available in Step 3: Business case assessment .

Overview of business case review and assessment - projects

The flowchart below illustrates indicative, high-level business case development, review and decision-making processes for two-stage and single-stage business cases. This flowchart does not illustrate concurrent third party quality assurance activities which are likely to be required alongside most business cases (particularly projects that require a two-stage business case). Actual processes and timelines are normally agreed on a case-by-case basis.

Single-stage and two-stage business cases: Assessment process and timelines

Overview of business case review and assessment - programmes.

The flowchart below illustrates indicative, high-level business case development, review and decision-making processes for programme business cases. This flowchart does not illustrate concurrent third party quality assurance activities which are required alongside all programme business cases. Actual processes and timelines are normally agreed on a case-by-case basis.

Programme business cases: Assessment process and timelines

Related content, financial monitoring of teis, formal and statutory interventions.

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14 June 2022.

These papers are the Strategic Assessment and Programme Business Case for the Ministry of Social Development’s (MSD) Te Pae Tawhiti Transformation programme which will enable MSD to deliver services that are easier to use, more accessible and integrated.  The programme will also modernise MSD’s technology and improve the secure use of data and information.

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Auckland Rail Programme Business Case

The Auckland Rail Programme Business Case was jointly developed by KiwiRail and Auckland Transport across 2021-23.

It is a holistic assessment of the whole system of rail in Auckland and has developed the Strategic Rail Programme that will provide the reliability, resilience and room for growth that is needed to support the needs of all its users.

It also creates a long-term vision for the rail network in Auckland, encompassing its local, regional and national contexts.

The Auckland Rail Programme Business Case and associated documents are available via the adjacent links. These include the “Rail Story” which is a high-level pre-read, and a summary of its outcomes as presented at the New Zealand Rail Conference in November 2023.

The Programme Business Case documents can be accessed via the following links:

• NZRC Presentation   (summary outcomes)
• Rail Story   (Pre-read)
• Programme Business Case Final Report

Programme Business Case Appendices

Appendix A_Summarised metro demand analysis  Appendix B_Detailed metro service capacity analysis  Appendix C_Role of Ports Appendix D_Freight service constraints Appendix E_Strategic Alignment Appendix F_Project dependencies and interfaces Appendix G_Options Development Report Part 1 Appendix H_Options Development Report Part 2 Appendix I_Economic Assessment Methodology Appendix J_Appraisal Summary Tables Appendix K_Capital Cost Report Appendix L_Additional P95 capital cost summaries Appendix M_Risk Register Appendix N_Uncertainty Log

Key Hira documents and resources

On this page, programme business case, digital enablement projects help people access health care.

• Digital Enablement Programme projects in detail

Vendor information

Vendor registration form, hira and digital health association q&a sessions, workshops & webinars.

This programme business case outlines the justification and proposed approach, timing and cost for establishing the Hira programme. The programme would enable accessibility of health information from many sources and a range of digital services that empower patients and enable organisations to collaborate in the provision of person-centred care.

Download: Programme business case - PDF, 6.1 MB

The Digital Enablement Programme was initiated to identify and support new and innovative ways for people to access health care digitally. As part of the programme, 19 innovative projects were supported to improve digital access to health services (the ‘Team of 19’).

Download: Digital Enablement Programme projects in detail - DOCX, 88 KB

Vendor upates december 2021.

We appreciate the New Zealand market is highly motivated to help us move forward with Hira.

Vendor responses to our request for information (RFI) were much appreciated and provided valuable insights, learnings and input which have informed the thinking and planning for Hira's next stages and helped define tranche one requirements.

The Ministry has now developed a commercial framework to ensure Hira procurements support innovation and value for money while providing a level playing field for all vendors. A draft accreditation and certification process to ensure participants have appropriate clearance and qualifications to access, consume and/or develop within the Hira suite has also been developed.

We expect to hold targeted workshops with health IT industry participants in about March 2022, to work through some technical aspects of Hira tranche one.

A procurement plan for the initial Hira releases will be confirmed in early 2022. Procurement opportunities will arise on an ongoing basis throughout the programme, which is expected to run until around the end of 2026.

Vendor Workshops

Following on from the Hira webinars in December, the Hira programme will be holding a series of workshops this year.

Each will focus on a specific aspect of Hira, including certification and on boarding, the commercial model, the Hira marketplace, and the developer portal.

07 June 2022 – Health Information Model Workshop

The  Health Information Model Workshop  is available to view.

07 April 2022 – Certification and Onboarding Workshop

The   Certification and Onboarding Workshop   is now available to view.

We want to understand more about the health data and services your organisation are interested in to help guide the development of the Hira ecosystem. 

Please help us by taking a few minutes to   complete our questionnaire .

The Hira Programme and the Digital Health Association (DHA) hold monthly online sessions to discuss the Hira Programme. Each month there is a focus on a particular topic, with discussions and questions and answers. Recordings of the sessions are available below.

These sessions are organised by DHA and are available to DHA members.

Please contact DHA at [email protected] to find out how to register.

Watch the latest session here:  August DHA – Hira open Q&A session . This session focused on the New Zealand and Australian approaches to digital health investment.

On 10 December 2021 the Hira programme team held webinars to provide stakeholders with an in-depth briefing of the programme, its timelines and deliverables, and what it will mean for consumers, delivery partners, and the health and disability sector.

The webinars are now available to view on demand at:

• Webinar for Health IT industry and innovators
• Webinar for health and disability providers, clinicians and consumers

Download: Webinar for Health IT industry and innovators - PDF, 2.5 MB

Download: webinar for providers and consumers - pdf, 1.8 mb, download: hira frequently asked questions - docx, 573 kb.

11 pages of FAQs relating to the Hira Programme

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​​Writing the business case

​Not all procurements need a business case. Your agency should have a policy to tell you when a business case is required and what it should contain.

Agencies are expected to:

• prepare a business case to support the procurement of higher value and higher risk items, and 
• require the business case to be part of the project approval process.

If the procurement is part of a larger project, there may already be an approved business case in place.

The business case

A business case provides justification for undertaking a project. It evaluates the benefits, costs and risks of alternative options and presents the rationale for the preferred solution. Its purpose is to obtain management commitment and approval for the investment or funding.

The business case is owned by the project sponsor.

A business case should explain:

The case for change

• Identifies and describes the need. 
• Demonstrates sufficient consultation with stakeholders. 
• Identifies what success looks like.

How to achieve best public value

• Determines how critical goods/services are to agency and how goods/services will deliver against business/public policy objectives. 
• Reviews contract outcomes and supplier performance where there has been a previous contract for supply of the goods or delivery of the services. 
• Identifies the options for an approach to market and the preferred option with justification for its selection. 
• Identifies level of quality and performance required, and options to measure.

Commercial viability

• Demonstrates an understanding of the market, current prices and price drivers. 
• Assesses the costs, benefits and risks (include whole-of-life costs) and examine whether the initiative is feasible.

Recommendations and other options

• Provides rationale for preferred solution and the reasons for rejecting others through a thorough options analysis. 
• Seeks management approval for project to proceed and obtain financial approval for the estimated costs.

Treasury – better business cases

Treasury – guidance and templates for writing business cases

Relationship to the procurement plan

The procurement plan should build on the business case (not repeat it), and provide a link from the business case to implementation and delivery. A procurement plan provides the methodology and approach, process and project management structure for implementation.

Writing a procurement plan

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Better Business Cases™ Online Course

Better Business Cases (BBC) gives you the most comprehensive approach to Business Case development.  Broad coverage is ensured so that the very best thinking goes into a Business Case and the best option is chosen. 

• Highest level of support before, during and after the course,
• Top Exam Results with a 99% Pass Rate.
• Study in your own time and have support as you need it.

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Why Better Business Cases?

BBC is a very broad and comprehensive approach to business case development used extensively across Aotearoa/New Zealand

BBC has been developed as a thinking and planning tool.  You will learn a broad range of tools a wide range of areas to consider.  These areas include:-

• Ensuring an initiative has a good strategic fit and fits with the other initiatives in your organisation or context
• Having a structured approach to choosing the most economically advantageous option
• Ensuring there is a viable commercial or in-house approach to delivering the service or function
• Ensuring there is adequate funding
• Ensuring that the resultant project or programme is planned and governed.  Making sure that change is planned, benefits are realised and lessons are learnt.

These 5 areas together are called the 5 Case Model covering Strategic, Economic, Commercial, Financial and Management.  In our training we will enable you to fully understand how to consider these areas.

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Our Wellington based trainers are ready to provide you with support.  They have the highest experience in the industry.

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While our online courses allow you to work on your own we are there providing local support when you need it.

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• Receive the full BBC curriculum and recognised qualification. This qualification is permanent, with the option of going onto Practitioner, at any time in the future, through any registered provider.

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• Practitioner is the qualification which demonstrates your professional ability to develop business cases, contribute to business case development or review business cases. You need be Foundation certified before completing Practitioner but we can get your through both.

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• Already completed Foundation ready to make the next move to Practitioner? Then register now to complete your online training with us. If you completed Foundation with Project Results, we have special rates for this so contact us now.

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Once you register for any course you are sent a folder containing the “International Guide to developing the Project Business Case” Manual, the “Inspiring Projects Desk Reference”, sample exams and the full online course. The online course is electronically delivered so you will be able to start immediately.

In Practitioner, we have a strong focus on applying business in real life. Our focus on scenario based exercises includes the complexity and nuances inherited in real life business case development (so no rote answers).  This is done in small groups and as a whole class.

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National Resilience Programme Business Case

The National Resilience Programme Business Case is a foundation product of He Anamata Manawaroa – the Waka Kotahi Resilience Programme.

In mid-May 2020, the Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency Board endorsed the National Resilience Programme Business Case. It identifies and rates nationally important risks from natural hazards (including climate change-related) in the New Zealand land transport system and addresses a range of system-wide resilience process issues.

Responses to the highest priority risks and sites will be submitted for consideration into the National Land Transport Programme (NLTP). The associated evidence base, risk prioritisation methodology and decision-making framework is now available.

The National Resilience Programme Business Case (PBC) includes an evidence-base for future planning and investment decisions. It provides a national picture of vulnerability and exposure of New Zealand’s highway network to natural hazards. The PBC does not replace or remove the need for localised place-based business cases.

From a national importance and impact perspective, this evidence base is the first time Waka Kotahi can confidently express a nationally consistent, objective and representative view of resilience risks.

Using the evidence base, it will be important to consider related or associated risks on a regional, corridor or journey basis.

Risks to the land transport system

A key output of the Programme Business Case (PBC) is a Portfolio Risk Assessment. It results in a database identifying and rating risks to the land transport system. 

Each risk is rated as Extreme, Major, Moderate or Minor. You can view the 380 total risks – including 40 Extreme and 143 Major risks in map form on ArcGIS:

National Resilience Programme Business Case 2020 (external link)

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency commissioned the development of a National Resilience Programme Business Case following on from the work commenced by the National Resilience Strategic Case (2019). This case is the latest in a series of studies and cases that seek to improve how Waka Kotahi embeds resilience into its business and investment planning.  Read the overview here:

Executive summary [PDF, 243 KB]

Natural hazard risk sites

This Regional Risk Assessment Summary Report provides a summary of the sites rated as extreme and major risks.  It then goes on to detail natural hazard risk sites assessed in each region and rates them on a four-step grading from Extreme to Minor.

Appendix F of the National Resilience Programme Business Case [PDF, 1.3 MB]

Regional major and extreme risk location maps

Regional maps – Natural hazards risk rating [LARGE FILE] [PDF, 20 MB]

Risk prioritisation methodology and decision-making approach

This report details the process and methodology of a Portfolio Risk Assessment (PRA) completed across New Zealand’s land transport system to identify and rate natural hazard risks.

Appendix G of the National Resilience Programme Business Case [PDF, 296 KB]

Background to the National Resilience PBC

This business case was commissioned to:

• Provide an evidence base of the nationally extreme and major risks posed to the New Zealand land transport system from a natural hazards perspective
• Deliver an associated agreed, preferred and integrated suite of system-wide responses that Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency and its co-investment partners could implement to address the identified risks and best achieve the benefits and outcomes defined by this case. These responses represent the high-level strategic interventions (especially focused on the NLTP) or initiatives across Waka Kotahi to address the resilience risks, issues, deficiencies and opportunities in or affecting the land transport system, including those geographical sites identified in the evidence base
• Reflect the significance of resilience issues affecting the land transport system and associated infrastructure.

This case also identifies potential actions for the Waka Kotahi Business Plan and for Regional Land Transport Plans.

National Resilience Programme Business Case [PDF, 21 MB]

What happens now?

Our resilience team is helping to support work across Waka Kotahi to apply the national evidence base into decision-making. The evidence base can be used to reduce risk and improve resilience of the land transport system.

The rating of natural hazard risks in the land transport system identified 40 extreme risks. Of these, 20 risk sites have been grouped to 13 new Business Cases to be proposed for inclusion in the NLTP.

Why are there only state highway locations and risks identified?

The focus was on national level risks/impacts and these are found predominantly on state highways. There are a small number of local roads in the database, but did not get rated in the extreme risk category.

Why are locational risks emphasised?

A key purpose of the PBC was to provide a database to inform and support an enhanced capital works programme for the NLTP.

Webinar presentation

Lead Advisor Resilience Stuart Woods presented a webinar through Engineering NZ in July 2020. Check out the questions and answers from around the 40-minute mark in the video below.

National Land Transport Resilience Programme

Please share comments and questions directly with us at  [email protected]