Stuck in the Slow Lane: Reforming the Department for Transport

The Adam Smith Institute’s latest discussion paper, written by Tim Ambler, proposes a number of reforms to improve the efficiency and value for money of the Department for Transport.

This paper is part of the Adam Smith Institute’s “Reforming the Civil Service” series.

• The Department for Transport (DfT) has responsibility for a number of functions that are currently performed inefficiently and represent poor value for taxpayer money;

• DfT should be structured as an HQ dealing with policy, legislation and all matters too small to need a specialist Executive Agency;

  • All other matters should be handled by Executive Agencies and no other public bodies should be required;

• Network Rail is in dire need of significant reform and lacks transparency—a headcount reduction of 20,000 staff should be possible;

• The Office for Rail and Road devotes much of its staff time and resources to matters that should be left to rail management, therefore it should be closed;

• The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) should be merged, with a consequent reduction in staff numbers of 50% (5,000);

  • The two bodies duplicate each other in record-keeping and online updating can be left to garages and drivers;

• Further improvements to departmental efficiency can be realised by merging other DfT arm’s length bodies;

  • Taken together, the recommendations in this report would produce a total headcount saving of nearly 30,000.