Road pricing privacy fears raised

The Government must not deny local people a chance to air their views on local road pricing schemes, the report from the House of Commons Transport Committee added.

The potential intrusion into individuals' privacy represented by the monitoring of vehicle movements was "a significant and legitimate concern", MPs said. This concern was tending to "undermine public support for road pricing schemes", said the committee which was reporting its views on the draft Local Transport Bill.

The MPs went on: "Although witnesses were confident that the technology was available to collect charges while protecting drivers' privacy, we are not convinced that the current statutory framework is sufficiently robust to address these concerns. The Government must ensure that its statutory guidance relating to protecting privacy in charging schemes is tough enough to address public concerns."

The committee's chairman Gwyneth Dunwoody MP added: "The Committee is not convinced that the current statutory framework is sufficiently robust to address concerns about the protection of drivers' privacy. We need to know what information may be acquired and under what circumstances."

The committee said the Bill included powers for Passenger Transport Authorities to arrange local road pricing schemes with local councils, with the Transport Secretary in future not being responsible for the approval of local charging schemes in England or for ordering public consultations.

The committee said it found this unacceptable since proper public consultation was "fundamental in advance of the imposition of charging schemes".

Mrs Dunwoody said: "Local communities have a right to know what is happening in relation to their own traffic schemes. They need to be reassured that schemes are well designed, meet local needs and road users understand why they are being introduced. The Government must not give local authorities the power to ignore the legitimate concerns of local residents."

The Bill enables local authorities to vary the charges they impose on drivers according to the means of payment. But the committee felt there should be standardisation of systems so that vehicles could be driven from one charging zone to another without having to register for each scheme individually.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: "We welcome the committee's comments. This Bill is about much more than local road pricing. It sets out a range of measures to improve public transport, including giving authorities the powers to ensure local bus services meet local need, as well as exploring innovative ways of cutting congestion."