§ Mrs. DunwoodyTo ask the Secretary of State for Tranpsort, pursuant to his answer of 7 February,Official Report, column 97, how much was spent in the financial year 1993–94 on publishing the traffic area office annual report and the traffic area office customer service guides; and what are the costs of the customer service guides as a percentage of the running costs of traffic area co-ordination division and the traffic area office network.
§ Mr. KeyThe cost of publishing the traffic area annual report and the customer service guides during the financial year 1993–94 was £3,500. The costs of the customer service guides represented less than 0.5 per cent. of running costs of traffic area co-ordination division and the traffic area office network.
§ Mrs. DunwoodyTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Don Valley (Mr. Redmond) of 28 February,Official Report, column 563, what plans he has to make available information about how to complain about goods or public service vehicles at places other than traffic area offices; and what plans he has to publicise the existence of traffic area offices.
§ Mr. KeyComplaints about goods vehicles and public service vehicles may be addressed to a number or organisations depending on the nature of the complaint. The two main organisations within my Department are the Vehicle Inspectorate and the local traffic area office. Both these organisations have published or are about to publish codes of practice which will explain how to make complaints.
The code of practice for traffic area offices which came into effect on 1 April 1994 explains the operator licensing and bus registration services they provide their customers. This code will shortly be printed in leaflet form for general distribution and will include a map showing the eight traffic area offices, their areas of responsibility, addresses and telephone numbers. A press notice will be issued to publicise the leaflet.