Conclusions and recommendations
1. We are concerned that the Agency has not
done enough to address the risks to safety posed by foreign HGVs
on our roads. While
the Department is funding a three year programme to target such
vehicles, a more sustained effort is required. The Department
and Agency should prepare an action plan to set out what they
will do to focus greater enforcement activity on foreign operators
when the present High Risk Traffic Initiative expires in 2011.
2. The Department should have done more sooner
to ensure that the Agency had access to information in HM Revenue
and Customs' Freight Targeting Database which would give it critical
intelligence about vehicles arriving in Great Britain from mainland
Europe. After several years the Agency
still has not negotiated access to the database. The Department
and the Agency should reach agreement with HM Revenue and Customs
urgently to share information held on vehicles, taking appropriate
regard of data protection requirements. If necessary, this should
be by direct contact between the respective Permanent Secretaries.
3. It is unacceptable that the Agency is currently
unable to access all ports where it could best inspect high risk
vehicles before they enter Great Britain.
The Agency is negotiating a memorandum of understanding with the
British Ports Association to establish its access conditions.
If these negotiations do not have a successful outcome in the
near future, the Department and Agency should identify and implement
other means to get access to all ports in Great Britain.
4. It is unsatisfactory that some European
Member States do not cooperate with the Agency by sharing data
about British operators found to be non-compliant when travelling
abroad. Such information would help the
Agency to form a more complete view of the risks posed by these
operators. The Agency should investigate the reasons why individual
Member States do not provide data on non-compliant British operators
and take steps to secure greater cooperation.
5. The Agency's risk scoring system is not
accurate enough to be truly effective in helping it to target
its inspections on the riskiest operators.
The Agency should revise its risk scoring system so that:
- it draws on data on vehicle
type and condition to give a better indication of the risk posed
by operators, and
- the scores better reflect the assessed risks
to road safety from factors such as overloaded vehicles or defective
steering.
6. The Agency has not always located its checksites
in the best places or made full use of them.
The Agency should review the location of its checksites across
Great Britain, based on factors such as road safety risk and commercial
traffic flow, including rural routes directed by satellite navigation
systems. It should then produce a business case for relocating
sites as appropriate so that examiners can stop high risk vehicles
at the most effective locations on the road network.
7. The Agency's performance targets assign
low priority to operator visits which risks discouraging staff
from carrying them out. It has, however,
begun to visit persistently non-compliant operators at their premises
in an attempt to address the causes of their non-compliance. The
Agency should adjust its performance targets so that staff are
properly incentivised to undertake operator visits.
8. Solutions to many of the current problems
await the Department's HGV Compliance Strategy.
Once finalised, the Department should share its strategy with
the National Audit Office so that it can confirm that the strategy
tackles the relevant issues and, if appropriate, can report back
to us.
9. We are concerned that foreign lorries use
our roads and cause accidents here but, unlike British lorries,
do not pay any tax. The Department should
work with the Treasury to reduce this imbalance and find a way
for foreign lorries to pay for their keep on our roads.
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