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The Driver and Vehicle Operator (DVO) Group is part of the Department for Transport and is made up of four agencies: the Driving Standards Agency, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) and the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA). It was established in 2003 to promote closer collaboration between the agencies and to develop modernised co-ordinated services in order to deliver improved customer services and value for money. The Highways Agency is an executive agency of the Department for Transport and is responsible for operating, maintaining and improving the strategic road network in England. Issues considered in the Committee's report include how the agencies contribute to departmental objectives and policy, issues of accountability and transparency, agency funding and accounts, shared systems and co-ordination.
Over 3,500 people are killed on our roads each year, with a further 33,000 seriously injured. The Committee's report focuses on the role of traffic law in making our roads and communities safer, and on the role of the police and other agencies in roads policing. Issues discussed include the adequacy of traffic offences and penalties; whether the police and other enforcement agencies have the right priorities; the needs of pedestrians and cyclists; policy options to deal with dangerous drivers before they cause harm; the impact of uninsured, unlicensed and banned drivers on traffic enforcement; and the effects of administrative changes (such as the transfer of network management duties from the police to the Highways Agency) on road safety and effective law enforcement. Findings of the Committee include the need for a radical overhaul of the way serious traffic offences are dealt with, by the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts system, as well as in public attitudes towards poor driving standards. The Committee praises the work undertaken by the Department for Transport to prioritise road safety issues, and calls on the Home Office to act urgently to establish an appropriate legal framework for dealing with road offenders and ensuring our roads are properly policed.
The snowfall on 1 and 2 February 2009, the heaviest since 1991, had a drastic impact on transport in London, which had no bus service for most of the morning of 2 February. Overground trains and London Underground services were also affected by delays and cancellations. Disruption to services also affected other areas of the country and continued for several days. This report looks at why public transport had been disrupted and whether this disruption was handled better or worse by different authorities, whether planning and preparation by local authorities and the Highways Agency was sufficient, and whether co-ordination between the bodies involved in responding to the heavy snow was adequate. Local authorities and agencies need to examine any weaknesses or potential improvements to emergency plans that may have emerged from the events on 1-2 February. Responses to heavy snow and its impact on traffic can be improved, but these are to do with planning and co-ordination, not increased spending: extra money, increased salt stocks or more snow ploughs are not the solution. The report finds that three key elements are required for a successful response to severe weather: the relationship between all the bodies involved in ensuring that the road network and public transport systems can operate; emergency recovery plans and winter maintenance plans should give a clear indication of what the priorities for salting and gritting should be and that these priorities have been agreed with public transport operators and the emergency services; the presence of good leadership. Co-ordination, prioritisation and visible leadership are vital to the success and speed of recovery following severe weather.
Although road accident deaths have halved between 1958 and 2007 whilst the number of licensed motor vehicles and vehicle mileage covered increased by 400 per cent, the current rate of 3,000 deaths and 250,000 injuries is still an unacceptably high level. Road accidents are the largest single cause of death for people between the ages of 5 and 35 in Britain, and road accidents cost our economy some £18 billion each year. The number of deaths and injuries on roads far outweighs the deaths and injuries in other transport modes, and should be viewed as a major public health problem. The Government should establish a British Road Safety Survey to track overall casualty and safety trends, and review current methods for recording road-traffic injuries. The Committee recommends a systems approach to road safety: ensuring the vehicle, the road infrastructure, regulations and driver training are designed to similar safety and performance standards. Other recommendations include: more 20 mph speed limits; a more proactive approach to determining the safety benefits of new vehicle technologies; action on young drivers - who represent a disproportionate risk to road users - and vulnerable users: motorcyclists, elderly and child pedestrians and cyclists, horse riders; a higher priority given to enforcement of drink-drive and drug-drive offences. The Committee recommends the establishment of an independent Road Safety Commission with powers to work across the whole of government, ensuring that a high priority and adequate resources are given to road safety and that all government departments and agencies give active support. The Government should also establish a road accident investigation branch, like those in aviation, rail and marine.
In 2005, traffic collisions killed 3,201 people with almost 29,000 seriously injured on British roads. Although the level of road crash fatalities and injuries has fallen over successive decades and Britain has one of the safest road environments in the world, the numbers still remain far too high and many of these casualties might have been avoided if there was a higher level of compliance with traffic law. The Committee's report examines the road casualty problem, focusing on the role of roads policing and the contribution which enforcement can make to casualty reduction. It considers how technology is influencing the policing and enforcement of particular offences, relating to speeding, drink and drug driving, driving whilst using a mobile phone and driving while impaired by fatigue. The report finds that, despite progress made by the Department for Transport against its 2010 casualty reduction targets, the Home Office has continued to deny traffic law enforcement issues the priority it requires and must explicitly adopt the targets as a key part of its future national policing plans. Investment and research into new technological equipment, such as roadside breath testing equipment and time-distance cameras, and a higher profile and more visible traffic enforcement effort would bring important casualty reductions. However, the efficiencies which technology can bring should not be seen as a opportunity to cut the number of roads police officers, as technology alone cannot carry out the multitude of functions undertaken by roads police officers.
Incorporating HC 533, session 2008-09
The Government's Future of Air Transport strategy aims to significantly increase UK airport capacity over the next two decades to accommodate the predicted growth in demand for air travel. New runways at Heathrow and Stansted airports are two of the key airport development proposals. If all the White Paper-supported airport development proposals came to fruition, current Government forecasts predict that the number of passengers passing through UK airports will increase from 241 million passengers a year in 2007 to 455 million passengers a year in 2030. This UK growth matches air traffic predictions for the whole continent. Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, predicts that European air traffic will double by 2020. If rising demand for air travel is to be met effectively through additional airport capacity, a corresponding increase in airspace capacity must be realised. However, a country's airspace, the portion of atmosphere above its territory and territorial waters, controlled by that country is a finite resource. UK airspace, particularly in the South East of England, is already some of the busiest and most complex to manage in the world. This will almost certainly require improvements in the efficiency of the UK air traffic management system.The Committee's inquiry aims to look at how to meet these challenges. Its findings are aimed at those organisations responsible for airspace-related decisions in the UK: the CAA, NATS, and the Department for Transport. Passenger numbers and freight demand globally have declined in 2008 and in the first months of 2009. In its conclusions and recommendations the Committee covered the management of airspace, strategy, change and co-ordination in airspace management, environmental impacts of airspace changes and European developments.
Failure to comply with parking restrictions disrupts traffic, increases road congestion, heightens risks of accidents and delays public transport schedules. The Committee's report considers a number of measures required to improve parking enforcement policy in Britain, including the key recommendation that we need to move to a single country-wide system of decriminalised parking enforcement (in place of the current dual system of localised enforcement where parking policy is administered by local authorities in some areas and by the police in others). Although transferring responsibility for parking enforcement to local government has succeeded in raising levels of enforcement and compliance, poor administrative practices causes driver frustration and wastes resources, and threatens to bring the decriminalised parking regime into disrepute. Other recommendations include: the establishment of clear performance standards in applying parking restrictions; improved recruitment, remuneration and training to ensure the development of a professional parking service; greater transparency in the procedure for challenging penalty charge notices and an increased awareness of the role of the parking adjudication service; and the need for local authorities to develop parking strategies which meet local objectives, focusing on congestion targets, road safety and accessibility issues.
The Committee's report examines a range of safety and environmental issues regarding technological developments in the design of motor vehicles under the following headings: industrial advantage and vehicle technology; the environment and the car of the future, carbon emissions and European standards; future fuels and technologies; incentives for low carbon and alternative fuel cars; vehicle safety technology; telematics for intelligent transport systems and law enforcement, including satellite location technology and in-vehicle technology for crime prevention; consumer awareness, safety and environmental information, and the car maintenance sector.
Annual report For 2004 : First report of session 2004-05, report, together with appendices and formal Minutes