3.43 The Government will require departments to maintain a database of current and forward construction projects in a consistent reporting format for central consolidation in a construction database maintained by the Efficiency and Reform Group in the Cabinet Office (see also Component A).
3.44 As announced in the National Infrastructure Plan 2010 Infrastructure UK will publish by the end of spring 2011 a programme of work to improve the quality of data held in relation to economic infrastructure.
3.45 In support of this programme Infrastructure UK is establishing a joint public sector and industry Infrastructure Data Group to help coordinate the development and delivery of this programme with related activities within departments, regulators, infrastructure clients, industry and academia.
3.46 The Government will work with the Infrastructure Data Group to establish a top-down approach and protocols to assure the robustness of departmental asset and condition records.
3.47 The Infrastructure Data Group will report to the Joint Programme Management Board by December 2011 on pilots for the extended use of benchmarking in setting cost targets run by the Highways Agency, Environment Agency, Network Rail and London Underground.
3.48 Through the Infrastructure Data Group the Government will consider means to capture post project cost information and improve access to international data, working with the Construction Sector Transparency (CoST) initiative (by winter 2011).4
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4 CoST is an international multi-stakeholder initiative designed to increase transparency and accountability in the construction sector supported by the Department for International Development and the World Bank.