Funding allocated for dedicated Welsh traffic commissioner

The Welsh government has set aside £210,000 to fund a separate traffic commissioner (TC) for Wales, although the UK government has yet to agree to such a post being created.

Wales is currently handled from the West Midlands Traffic Area office. Nick Jones (pictured), the TC for the West Midlands and Wales, has repeatedly claimed that safety standards for buses, coaches and trucks in Wales are lower than in other areas as a result of this arrangement.

The UK government apparently does not agree: last summer Plaid Cymru MP Hywel Williams asked if the transport secretary would appoint a “TC for Wales who is based in Wales”.

Transport minister Andrew Jones MP replied: “The TC for Wales is a joint appointment with that of the TC for the West Midlands. There is an insufficient volume of operators to justify a separate Welsh Commissioner. All public inquires for Welsh operators are heard in Wales.”

In his annual reports, Mr Jones has repeatedly raised the possibility of a Welsh TC and office to be based in Wales – claiming Wales gets a “second rate service” as a result of the existing situation, and that the fees paid by Welsh operators are subsidising the activities of his English office.

He points out that there is no budget for his office to comply with Welsh-language legislation.

South Wales had its own TC until 1996, when the Cardiff office was closed and its functions transferred to Birmingham under then Welsh secretary John Redwood, MP for Wokingham.

In 1999, the Labour UK government transferred North Wales to the Birmingham office. The Welsh Government has asked for a separate Welsh TC since 2002, two years before MPs on the Welsh affairs committee made the same recommendation. Labour pledged in its 2011 election manifesto to seek a separate commissioner.

In 2014, the Silk Commission on Welsh devolution said it should be up to the Welsh Government to decide whether the country should have its own TC, who would be accountable to Welsh ministers over devolved powers such as bus regulation and to UK ministers in reserved areas such as goods vehicle licensing.

Stuart Cole, Emeritus Professor of Transport at the University of South Wales, has estimated the cost of a separate Welsh TC at £750,000 a year, but has said there would be savings to be made in the Birmingham office, and also from improved safety on Welsh roads.

Wales has exceeded Scotland (which does have its own TC) in the number of Public Inquiries held each year.