Congestion charging
22. The Agency's role in supporting the London Congestion
Charging scheme is limited to providing information as directed
by the Transport Act 2000. This places a statutory requirement
on the Agency to provide information relevant to vehicles and
keepers, free of charge, in supporting congestion charging schemes.
It is difficult for the Agency to work within this statutory obligation
particularly as there is no agreed technical framework as to the
form and nature of the information to be supplied and it cannot
regulate the demand on its service.[54]
The Agency provides data to Transport for London (TfL) for two
purposes; to enable TfL to validate applications for exemptions
and to assist TfL to pursue evaders of the Congestion Charge.[55]
The Agency stressed that enforcement of the Congestion Charge
is entirely the responsibility of TfL.[56]
23. The Agency developed a Web Enabled Enquiry system
to meet the information requests from TfL. The Agency explained
that while it was statutorily bound to provide data free of charge,
TfL had funded 50% of £600,000 development costs for the
system. TfL also funds, on a voluntary basis, the running costs
associated with their information needs.[57]
24. The number of data requests made via the system,
based on TfL's original estimates, was expected to be in the region
of 60,000 per day.[58]
However, to date actual requests have been running at about a
third of this level and this has led to a review of the charging
basis.[59] The Agency
confirmed that it also uses the Web Enabled Enquiry system to
receive electronic notifications from scrap dealers of vehicles
that have been scrapped and to provide information to local authorities.[60]
Irregular income from Drivers'
Medical fees
25. The Agency failed to identify a change in legislation
in 1997 that had removed its powers to levy a £6 fee for
drivers over 70 with a medical condition who wished to renew their
licence.[61] It acted
quickly once this error came to light and set about correcting
it as a matter of urgency. The fees refunded amounted to £3.35
million[62]
and the Agency incurred costs of £196,000 in identifying,
processing and returning the fees to the drivers concerned.[63]
54 C&AG's Report, paras 90; Q 16 Back
55
C&AG's Report, para 83 Back
56
Q 16 Back
57
C&AG's Report, para 87; Qq 16, 75-80, 122-123 Back
58
Qq 72-73 Back
59
C&AG's Report, para 87 Back
60
ibid, para 86; Q 76 Back
61
DVLA Annual Account 2002-03, Note 2, p26 Back
62
ibid Back
63
Q 83 Back
