Consultation letter
John MacLellan
4th Floor
Berkeley House
Croydon Street
Bristol
BS5 0DA
14 January 2008
Dear consultee
NOTE: The consultation period has been reduced to 8 weeks and replies are due by 10 March 2008
Introduction
The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA), an Executive Agency of the Department for Transport, provides a range of licensing, testing and enforcement services with the aim of improving the roadworthiness standards of vehicles; ensuring the compliance of operators and drivers with road traffic legislation; and supporting the independent Traffic Commissioners.
We are seeking views of stakeholders regarding proposed increases to the statutory fees VOSA charges for its services in connection with testing and inspecting HGVs and PSVs; processing and monitoring operator licences; registering bus services; issuing permits; approving and monitoring tachograph centres; inspecting for single vehicle approval and vehicle identity checks. The MOT test fees for vehicles other than Heavy Goods Vehicles and Public Service Vehicles are not included in this consultation.
We think that this consultation will primarily be of interest to those who own, operate, repair or build the vehicles affected by the services mentioned above. A list of organisations and stakeholders that we have sent this consultation to is at Attachment C. If you have any suggestions of others who may wish to be involved in the consultation please let us know. The consultation will also available on the VOSA website at www.vosa.gov.uk or the Department for Transport website at www.dft.gov.uk.
Summary of Proposals
VOSA is a Government Trading Fund and so is legally obliged to ensure that ”taking one year with another” our income at least covers our costs. For most of the services we provide, the fees we charge are our only source of income. We normally review our fees annually. We try to introduce fee changes in early April at the beginning of our financial year. This is unlikely to be achieved in 2008; however we expect to introduce changes in May or June 2008.
The Impact Assessment (Attachment A) to this consultation give full details of the proposed fee increases, the evidence on which the increases has been based and their estimated effect on business costs. It also explains the likely effects of not increasing fees.
In summary the fee increases are necessary to cover inflation and to invest in:
- developing and maintaining E-enabled services;
- refurbishing old test stations and installing modern equipment;
- supporting better targeting of enforcement in line with the Government response to the Hampton report[1];
- additional enforcement sites in key locations; and
- service loans used to pay for such developments which have been capitalised.
Generally we are proposing to increase fees by an average of 5 % (thereby raising income by approximately £5 million in a full year). Individual fees are generally rounded to the nearest pound. In some cases we have adjusted the rounding process to ensure that fees are not always rounded in the same direction. We believe that the proposed fee increases will in general add no more than one fortieth of one percent to the costs of typical vehicle operating businesses.
Fees for Single Vehicle Approval have had to be increased by about 30% to ensure that the costs of these activities are fully met by the users of those services. Although this increase may seem large, it must be remembered that SVA fees did not rise from August 2001 until April 2007, thus the proposed fees represent an annual rate of increase from August 2001 of 4.85%.
What are we asking?
We particularly seek your views (with reasons where relevant) on the following questions but would also welcome views on more general aspects of the proposals.
In responses please bear in mind that legislation specifies the purposes for which income from particular fees can be used. It would, for example not be permissible, without a change to legislation, to use Vehicle Identity Check fee income to cover costs of PSV operator licensing, though both can contribute to the shared ‘overhead’ costs of running VOSA.
- Should we seek higher increases in one or more areas to increase the rate of investment in improved services?
- Should we cut back on planned investment and not seek to improve services in one or more areas?
- Should we decrease running costs by worsening existing service levels such as waiting time for tests or turnaround times for licence applications?
We have only been able to provide detail of the effects of the proposed fee increases on businesses operating HGVs. If you are a business affected by other fees, or represent such businesses:
- can you provide information about the overall operating costs of your business that we can use in future to model the effects of future fee increases on businesses in your sector (bearing in mind that we would have to publish the information and its source)?
How to respond to this consultation
We would welcome views from all who may be affected by these proposals. The consultation closes on 10 March 2008. It would be helpful if you replied using or including the consultation response form at Attachment D.
Please send your responses to reach us by 10 March 2008 by Email to:
or by post to:
VOSA 2008 Fees Consultation
4th floor
Berkeley House
Croydon Street
Bristol BS5 0DA
or by fax to: 0117 954 3303
This consultation has been produced generally in accordance with the principles of the Government’s “Code of Practice on Consultation” which are included at Attachment B. However, to minimise loss of income if the fees are not raised on the planned date in early April, Ministers have agreed to a reduced consultation period of 8 weeks. An Impact assessment for the proposed fee increases is included at Attachment A.
A summary of responses to this consultation will be published on the VOSA website at www.vosa.gov.uk and the Department for Transport website at www.dft.gov.uk after the consultation period has closed.
Disclosure of responses
According to the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, all information contained in your response to this consultation may be subject to publication or disclosure. This may include personal information such as your name and address. If you want your response or your name and address to remain confidential, you should explain why confidentiality is necessary in the relevant section of the response form. Your request will be granted only if it is it is consistent with Freedom of Information obligations. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your e-mail system or incorporated in pre-printed stationery will not be regarded as binding on the VOSA.
All responses will be included in any summary of results, although individuals will not be identified. Names and addresses may be held in an electronic database of interested parties for the purpose of distributing future documents on similar issues. However, any such details on a database will not be given to a third party. The personal information will be held in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1988.
If you wish to view individual responses after the consultation period has ended, these will be available for public viewing for a period of six months at the VOSA Corporate Office, Berkeley House, Croydon Street, Bristol BS5 0DA during office hours Monday to Friday.
Anyone wishing to inspect the responses is requested to telephone the Corporate Office on 0117 954 2562 to make an appointment (without which it will not be possible to gain admittance).
John MacLellan
