Download or read book The Opening of Heathrow Terminal 5 written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Transport Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: BAA opened Heathrow's fifth terminal for business on 27 March, after six years of construction at a cost of £4.3bn, on time and within budget. Passengers had been promised a "calmer, smoother, simpler airport experience". Multiple problems, however, meant that on the first day of operation alone, 36,584 passengers were frustrated by the 'Heathrow hassle' that Terminal 5 (T5) had been designed to eliminate. Problems were experienced with the baggage system, car parking, security searches and aspects of the building itself. When the baggage system failed, luggage piled up to such an extent that it was transported by road to be sorted off-site. According to British Airways, 23,205 bags required manual sorting before being returned to their owners. The Committee finds that most of these problems were caused by one of two main factors: insufficient communication between owner and operator, and poor staff training and system testing. The Committee was pleased to find that steps were being taken at all levels to address the problems at the source of T5's problems, and BAA, British Airways and the union Unite are working together to make Terminal 5 a success.

Download or read book The Work of the Department for Transport s Agencies Driver and Vehicle Operator Group and the Highways Agency written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Transport Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-07-27 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Driver and Vehicle Operator (DVO) Group is part of the Department for Transport and is made up of four agencies: the Driving Standards Agency, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) and the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA). It was established in 2003 to promote closer collaboration between the agencies and to develop modernised co-ordinated services in order to deliver improved customer services and value for money. The Highways Agency is an executive agency of the Department for Transport and is responsible for operating, maintaining and improving the strategic road network in England. Issues considered in the Committee's report include how the agencies contribute to departmental objectives and policy, issues of accountability and transparency, agency funding and accounts, shared systems and co-ordination.

Download or read book Ending the Scandal of Complacency written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Transport Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although road accident deaths have halved between 1958 and 2007 whilst the number of licensed motor vehicles and vehicle mileage covered increased by 400 per cent, the current rate of 3,000 deaths and 250,000 injuries is still an unacceptably high level. Road accidents are the largest single cause of death for people between the ages of 5 and 35 in Britain, and road accidents cost our economy some £18 billion each year. The number of deaths and injuries on roads far outweighs the deaths and injuries in other transport modes, and should be viewed as a major public health problem. The Government should establish a British Road Safety Survey to track overall casualty and safety trends, and review current methods for recording road-traffic injuries. The Committee recommends a systems approach to road safety: ensuring the vehicle, the road infrastructure, regulations and driver training are designed to similar safety and performance standards. Other recommendations include: more 20 mph speed limits; a more proactive approach to determining the safety benefits of new vehicle technologies; action on young drivers - who represent a disproportionate risk to road users - and vulnerable users: motorcyclists, elderly and child pedestrians and cyclists, horse riders; a higher priority given to enforcement of drink-drive and drug-drive offences. The Committee recommends the establishment of an independent Road Safety Commission with powers to work across the whole of government, ensuring that a high priority and adequate resources are given to road safety and that all government departments and agencies give active support. The Government should also establish a road accident investigation branch, like those in aviation, rail and marine.

Download or read book Bus Services Across the UK written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Transport Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-10-26 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buses are a key local service, but usage has been in decline since the 1950s. The Transport Act 1985 introduced deregulation, but that has failed to reverse that decline. The report examines the particular problems local authorities face in developing and implementing effective bus strategies. It is clear to the Committee that, for many areas, including all major metropolitan areas outside London, the current regime is not working. The Committee recommends more flexibility, and is particularly attracted by Quality Contracts. These would replace open competition with a licensed regime. Operators bid for exclusive rights to run bus services on a route or group of routes, on the basis of a local authority service specification. Independent Traffic Commissioners are another development that the Committee welcomes, and would like to see them have a higher profile and more resources and powers, especially to enforce Quality Contracts and penalise operators who do not meet their obligations. Others areas covered in the report are: securing socially necessary services outside the PTAs; congestion and bus priority; concessionary fares; and the image of the bus.

Download or read book Road Policing and Technology written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Transport Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-10-31 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2005, traffic collisions killed 3,201 people with almost 29,000 seriously injured on British roads. Although the level of road crash fatalities and injuries has fallen over successive decades and Britain has one of the safest road environments in the world, the numbers still remain far too high and many of these casualties might have been avoided if there was a higher level of compliance with traffic law. The Committee's report examines the road casualty problem, focusing on the role of roads policing and the contribution which enforcement can make to casualty reduction. It considers how technology is influencing the policing and enforcement of particular offences, relating to speeding, drink and drug driving, driving whilst using a mobile phone and driving while impaired by fatigue. The report finds that, despite progress made by the Department for Transport against its 2010 casualty reduction targets, the Home Office has continued to deny traffic law enforcement issues the priority it requires and must explicitly adopt the targets as a key part of its future national policing plans. Investment and research into new technological equipment, such as roadside breath testing equipment and time-distance cameras, and a higher profile and more visible traffic enforcement effort would bring important casualty reductions. However, the efficiencies which technology can bring should not be seen as a opportunity to cut the number of roads police officers, as technology alone cannot carry out the multitude of functions undertaken by roads police officers.

Download or read book The use of airspace written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Transport Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-07-10 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Government's Future of Air Transport strategy aims to significantly increase UK airport capacity over the next two decades to accommodate the predicted growth in demand for air travel. New runways at Heathrow and Stansted airports are two of the key airport development proposals. If all the White Paper-supported airport development proposals came to fruition, current Government forecasts predict that the number of passengers passing through UK airports will increase from 241 million passengers a year in 2007 to 455 million passengers a year in 2030. This UK growth matches air traffic predictions for the whole continent. Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, predicts that European air traffic will double by 2020. If rising demand for air travel is to be met effectively through additional airport capacity, a corresponding increase in airspace capacity must be realised. However, a country's airspace, the portion of atmosphere above its territory and territorial waters, controlled by that country is a finite resource. UK airspace, particularly in the South East of England, is already some of the busiest and most complex to manage in the world. This will almost certainly require improvements in the efficiency of the UK air traffic management system.The Committee's inquiry aims to look at how to meet these challenges. Its findings are aimed at those organisations responsible for airspace-related decisions in the UK: the CAA, NATS, and the Department for Transport. Passenger numbers and freight demand globally have declined in 2008 and in the first months of 2009. In its conclusions and recommendations the Committee covered the management of airspace, strategy, change and co-ordination in airspace management, environmental impacts of airspace changes and European developments.

Download or read book Progress Towards Devolution in Northern Ireland During the 2005 Parliament written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Northern Ireland Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Progress towards devolution in Northern Ireland during the 2005 Parliament : Seventh report of session 2009-10, report, together with formal minutes, oral and written Evidence

Download or read book A Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Northern Ireland Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-03-24 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Incorporating HC 360-i and ii, session 2008-09

Download or read book Parking Policy and Enforcement written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Transport Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-06-22 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Failure to comply with parking restrictions disrupts traffic, increases road congestion, heightens risks of accidents and delays public transport schedules. The Committee's report considers a number of measures required to improve parking enforcement policy in Britain, including the key recommendation that we need to move to a single country-wide system of decriminalised parking enforcement (in place of the current dual system of localised enforcement where parking policy is administered by local authorities in some areas and by the police in others). Although transferring responsibility for parking enforcement to local government has succeeded in raising levels of enforcement and compliance, poor administrative practices causes driver frustration and wastes resources, and threatens to bring the decriminalised parking regime into disrepute. Other recommendations include: the establishment of clear performance standards in applying parking restrictions; improved recruitment, remuneration and training to ensure the development of a professional parking service; greater transparency in the procedure for challenging penalty charge notices and an increased awareness of the role of the parking adjudication service; and the need for local authorities to develop parking strategies which meet local objectives, focusing on congestion targets, road safety and accessibility issues.

Download or read book Mobility Scooters written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Transport Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the light of anecdotal accounts of accidents involving the vehicles, but little hard evidence, MPs urge the Government to collect better data on the use of scooters as well as incidents and injuries where they are involved. To develop sound policy, we need a comprehensive evidence base detailing the number and nature of incidents involving mobility scooters on the UK's pavements and roads. Only by doing so, will issues such as the legal status of mobility scooters, the appropriateness of proficiency tests and the rights of users to take the vehicles on public transport be adequately addressed. The Committee's report notes that the Department for Transport has launched a consultation on many of these issues, but is concerned that after a similar review in 2005, Ministers failed to act on many of its findings. With a growing number of mobility scooter users on the UK's pavements and roads, the MPs call on the Government to take decisive action where necessary.

Download or read book Sessional Returns written by Great Britain: House of Commons and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2005-06-23 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With corrigendum slip dated June 2005 (1 sheet).

Download or read book The Departmental Annual Report 2005 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2005-12-20 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: departmental annual Report 2005 : Fourth report of session 2005-06, Vol. 1: Report, together with formal minutes, and lists of oral and written Evidence

Download or read book Tourism in Northern Ireland and its economic impact and benefits written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Northern Ireland Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-05-23 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Government reply to HCP 119, session 2006-07 (ISBN 9780215033000)

Download or read book Education in Northern Ireland written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Northern Ireland Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-02-09 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Secondary education in Northern Ireland is currently based on a selective system according to academic ability with the use of an 11-plus style test. However, the DfES has announced that academic selection will be ended by autumn 2008, and a consultation document published in December 2005 set out proposals for new post-primary arrangements. Although it was felt to be inappropriate to undertake a full inquiry at this late stage in the decision-making process, the Committee's report contains oral and written evidence submitted by interested parties to the debate. The Committee notes that education is a formerly devolved responsibility and states its hope that there will be scope for detailed supervision of any reforms by a restored Northern Ireland Assembly, as well as by the House of Commons.

Download or read book Organised Crime in Northern Ireland written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Northern Ireland Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-07-05 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Organised crime continues to have a damaging affect on society and on the economy of Northern Ireland. There is a continued involvement of paramilitaries from both loyalist and republican sides who exercise control over communities and instil a fear that leads to the under-reporting of crimes. Excise and tax fraud, intellectual property crime, extortion, drugs, armed robbery, money laundering and illegal dumping have been identified as the major areas of organised criminal activity. There is also evidence that human trafficking is an emerging problem. Because of the nature of the subject, this report, which occupied the Committee for over six months, is based on evidence given in private as well as that given at public hearings.

Download or read book Responses to the Committee s Second Report of Session 2004 05 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2005-04-11 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication sets out responses to the Committee's report on the credit card market (HCP 274, session 2004-05; ISBN 0215021711) published in February 2004, received from the Department for Trade and Industry, the Office of Fair Trading and the Financial Services Authority. Issues discussed include: transparency in charging practices; data sharing and responsible lending; and regulation of payment protection insurance.

Download or read book Counter terrorism policy and human rights ninth report written by Great Britain: Parliament: Joint Committee on Human Rights and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008-02-25 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 30th January 2008 the Home Secretary laid before both Houses of Parliament a draft Order to renew the control order legislation, the third annual extension of the control order regime. The Government takes the view that no amendments to the legal framework are necessary. The Committee disagrees and considers it imperative for the Government to amend counter-terrorism laws where experience has shown them to lead to breaches of human rights. Amongst their recommendations are: ensurance of timely availability of Lord Carlile's annual report on the control orders; the need to strengthen the intrusive powers contained in the control orders; modification of the Prevention of Terrorism Act to impose a maximum daily limit 12 hours on the curfew which can be imposed; review of the fairness of the special advocate procedure and a need to take into account the Committee's own earlier recommendations concerning this; maintaining the preferred policy of priority of prosecution; and greater transparency of decisions that prosecution is not possible.