The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Stephen Hammond)
The Department for Transport is committed to delivering better quality and better value motoring services to the public and business. I am therefore pleased to announce today that a new single agency will bring together the testing and standards services that are currently provided by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) and the Driving Standards Agency (DSA). These services will be delivered by the two agencies under a single chief executive and transitional board from July this year.
Bringing together the testing and standards services currently provided by VOSA and DSA will enable a single agency to deliver the same high-quality service, but with greater efficiency, potentially allowing for the reduction of fees. It will be easier for customers to navigate the services offered, and will reduce the administrative burden for those individuals and businesses that currently have regular contact with both DSA and VOSA. The initial move will take place in July this year—a single chief executive and transitional board will oversee the two trading funds. The trading funds will continue in their current form for at least the next 12 months. By that time we expect the detail of the structural reorganisation to be complete.
This move will result in an improved service to the public. We will work to ensure that there is no detrimental effect on the high quality of customer service delivery during the transitional phase. We are also working closely with employees from the agencies to help support them through the changes.
This announcement follows the consultation on our motoring services strategy which ran from 13 December 2012 to 7 March 2013. The strategy proposed rationalising the roles and numbers of agencies to provide an improved and more efficient delivery of motoring services to customers. Respondents to the consultation were generally supportive of this proposal, recognising the benefits that such a move would bring, but were keen to protect the quality of services.
I am also publishing the summary of responses to that consultation. Decisions on any other proposals detailed in the motoring services strategy will be announced in due course.