19 June 2008
The Department for Transport appears to lack a clear, tangible vision and is stalling on major policy decisions, MPs have said.
The Commons transport select committee's assessment of the DfT's 2007 annual report found a number of areas where the department appeared to be stalling, including electrification of railway lines and a national road-pricing scheme. 'The department clearly has substantial issues that need to be resolved, but at the moment there appears to be a lack of clear, tangible vision,' the MPs said.
Although Greater Manchester was awarded £2.8m from the DfT's Transport Innovation Fund to set up a congestion charging scheme and improve public transport, little progress had been made on road-pricing, despite the DfT giving high priority to a national scheme.
The MPs also expressed doubts over whether the DfT was 'sufficient in size to reap the benefits of the shared services approach'.
In May, the National Audit Office reported on a DfT project with IBM to allow staff in areas such as IT and human resources to access a shared system across the department and its agencies. The scheme was expected to cost £81m rather than deliver £57m in savings, the NAO warned.
The committee's report, published on June 13, says: 'We reiterate our encouragement for the department to actively seek clients for its shared services from parts of government outside the departmental group, in order to secure the long-term viability of its shared services programme.'
The MPs concluded that the department should be clearer about its priorities, taking into account the diverse recommendations of Sir Rod Eddington's review of transport and economic productivity and from Sir Nicholas Stern's report on the economics of climate change.
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