Kirsten Oswald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2015-12-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to encourage the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency to implement the review of staffing and deployment agreed with trades unions in February 2014.

Andrew Jones

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) regularly shares staffing data with the Trade Union Side (TUS) and has met them on many occasions since February 2014 to discuss matters including, but not limited to, staffing and deployment. A timeline was agreed with the TUS for these discussions to conclude on 23 September 2015 in order for them to ballot members on the position reached. Despite the final position on these talks being rejected by the TUS DVSA offered to continue discussions, on an ongoing basis, about staffing and deployment.

DVSA is currently engaged in talks via ACAS with the Prospect Union, who have suspended industrial action, and hopes to be able to do the same with the Public and Commercial Services Union.