MPs publish report on work of VOSA
The House of Commons transport select committee has published its report on the work of the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency, VOSA, in which it has highlighted ‘significant communciation problems’ between the enforcement agency, ministers and the traffic commissioners.
Said the report: “During this inquiry, there was a worrying conflict between evidence from the senior traffic commissioner [Beverley Bell] and that from VOSA’s chief executive [Alastair Peoples] and the parliamentary under-secretary of state for transport [Stephen Hammond].
“On a number of occasions the senior traffic commissioner said she had raised issues with VOSA and the Department for Transport only for them to say they had not heard the concerns before,” the MPs’ report said.
“There are clearly significant communication problems which urgently need resolving.”
The committee concluded that a perceived lack of independence of the traffic commissioners from VOSA was contributing to the problem, and recommended that the Department for Transport should consult on giving the commissioners their own staff, rather than relying on VOSA’s.
It said: “We accept that the July 2012 Framework Document has done much to clarify the relationship between VOSA and the traffic commissioners in recent years but it is apparent that more needs to be done.
“VOSA’s chief executive said the relationship between VOSA and the traffic commissioners “has not always been a marriage made in heaven” while the senior traffic commissioner said “we are trying very hard to make it work”. We believe these problems are not going to go away by themselves.”
In an oral evidence session to the committee earlier in the year, Bell launched an outspoken critique of VOSA’s enforcement activities, claiming the agency was “not targeting the serially and seriously non-compliant”. She said that VOSA did “some fabulous work, but I don’t think they do enough of it.”
Bell’s criticisms led Peoples to tell MPs in response that: “the traffic commissioners have never raised those concerns with me.”
Other enforcement matters addressed by the committee included the Operators Compliance Risk Score (OCRS) system, which MPs warned should be enhanced in order to minimise the risk of a “distorting effect whereby larger operators are not being monitored effectively,” thus leading to “complacency or poor practice.”
The committee added that VOSA should take “a more consistent approach to working with the police and the traffic commissioners to ensure offenders are prosecuted appropriately.”
On the subject of vehicle testing staff at ATFs, the committee said: “While we acknowledge a fully privatised model might be of benefit to some operators, we are not convinced that the case has been made for testing staff to be employed directly by ATFs. The UK’s HGVs and PSV road safety record is testament to the high standards of VOSA’s testing staff and we would not like to see this undermined in any way.”
The MPs also said that “VOSA should conduct market research to investigate claims that operators are suffering long time delays or long distances when booking tests,” the results of which “should be fed into deciding the pace at which ATFs may be opened.”
While reminding the agency to be “mindful of the impact of its fees on operators,” MPs nonetheless acknowledged the case for VOSA fee increases, in order to maintain service levels.
