IN THE NEWS
BUSINESS RADIO USERS REMINDED TO RENEW LICENCES
Ofcom has reminded licensed users of busi- ness radio - which can include taxi firms - to renew their Radio Spectrum Licences or face the prospect of having to pay a fixed penalty of £100. The £100 fixed penalty notices are part of an effort to encourage licence holders to renew their licences at the earliest opportuni- ty
and
interference to the radio spectrum. If a company is oper- ating without
may suffer interfer- ence
Annual licence fees from the prevent a
licence, the frequen- cies they are using may be allocated to another licensed user. When the licensed company uses their radio equipment, they
unlicensed operator. This comes as the owner of a Sunder- land-based taxi firm had to pay more than £1,700, after failing to pay a fixed penalty, because he did not have the required busi- ness radio licences. Thomas Steele, of Colliery Taxis, pleaded guilty to two offences of unlicensed use of business radio at Sun- derland Magistrates’ Court in May, having previously failed to pay the fixed penalty notice of £100. The magistrate fined Steele £345 for each offence and awarded Ofcom costs resulting in a total of over £1,700.
Annual licence fees are currently £145 on average. Ofcom’s process involves a sliding scale of action: • Ofcom will contact those who fail to renew a licence and advise them that their annual licence fees have not been paid;
• If, after reasonable opportunity,
• Ofcom investigators will
licence is revoked; look
the
licence holder has still not paid their licence fee,
the into
instances where licences have not been renewed;
• Enforcement action will be taken against
those who are found to be operating with- out a licence;
• Enforcement action may include issuing a fixed penalty or other
sanction,
including the possi- bility of prosecution through the criminal courts.
The fixed penalty notices that Ofcom issues operate in a similar way to ones issued for parking offences - they are sent to alleged offenders by post, who then have one month to respond. The first fixed penalty notice was issued in August 2012, by Ofcom to a taxi firm in Northern Ireland. The company failed to
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renew its licence and, following investiga- tions by Ofcom’s Enforcement Team, was found to be ille- gally using its radio system. In addition to
having to pay the penalty, the compa- ny’s radio equipment was seized and the owners interviewed by Ofcom’s Enforcement Team.
VOSA AND DSA TO MERGE
Government promis- es new agency will be more convenient and cost-effective
The Driving Standards Agency (DSA) and the Vehicle Operator Serv- ices Agency (VOSA) are to merge, roads minister Stephen Ham- mond announced on 20 June. That means motoring
services
from driving tests to the testing of goods vehicles will be the responsibility of one organisation. The single agency will come into being in 2014. A transitional board under the lead- ership of VOSA chief executive
at the end of June. Stephen Hammond told the Telegraph: “We need to make sure that we continue to keep pace with cus- tomers’ needs and deliver services in a way which is both con- venient and cost effective.
These Alastair
Peoples will start work this month to deter- mine the structure of the organisation. Peo- ples will head the as yet unnamed new agency. Rosemary Thew, the DSA chief executive, will have left her post
PAGE 44
changes will put cus- tomers at the heart of the services they rely on and allow for a more coherent ap- proach to service delivery. By bringing testing and standards services into a single organisation we will make life easier for customers and poten- tially reduce the fees we charge.” The Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMI) welcomed the news of the merger into a single agency. Sue Robinson, RMI Director commented: “The RMI responded to the Motoring Serv- ices Strategy consul-
tation and called on the DfT to rationalise its four key agencies. “The move to bring VOSA and DSA under one single agency will avoid duplication of duties and make the agencies more effi- cient. “Bringing the agen- cies together should help to
simplify
processes for busi- nesses as well as keep fees down. “The RMI await the outcome of the Motor- ing Services Strategy and hope that the DfT will take on board our other tions,
recommenda- specifically
those surrounding an expansion of Autho- rised Testing Facilities (ATF) testing. “The RMI also believe that an expansion of online services provid- ed by agencies
the DfT would
improve efficiency and abolition of tax discs in vehicles.”
PHTM JULY 2013
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