HC Deb 16 October 1995 vol 264 cc67-8W
Ms Walley

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he was informed of the proposals by the Driving Standards Agency to abandon its market testing proposals; if a Minister in his Department made the decision to abandon the market test; and if he will place in the Library copies of all correspondence between the agency management and the Department relating to the decision to abandon the market test. [36679]

Mr. Norris

I received advise from the chief executive of the Driving Standards Agency in June that the implementation of the market test should be modified so as to achieve a better integration of the driving test booking services with those of examiner deployment and residual functions. My decision was based on that advice; I have decided that the disclosure of that advice, which was provided in confidence to assist internal discussion, would be inappropriate.

Ms Walley

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will estimate the number of staff likely to be made compulsory redundant as a result of the reversal of the DSA market test, the estimated cost of severance payments and the estimated savings he expects to make by the newly proposed office rationalisation programme. [36680]

Mr. Norris

Under the modified arrangements, which have been the subject of widespread consultation with DSA staff and the relevant trade unions, it was assumed that there would be around 70 redundancies, at an estimated cost of £1.4 million. In practice, the final number of redundancies and consequential cost will be significantly smaller. It is hoped that most of these will be on a voluntary basis. The modified arrangements gave additional savings in the region of £20,000 over 10 years.