Impact of congestion charging

Report: 11
Date: 30 January 2003
By: Commissioner

Summary

On 17 February 2003, Transport for London will introduce congestion charging for vehicles being used within central London. The congestion charging regime is expected to help improve police response times and reduce some crime levels within the designated zone although, equally, there may be some disbenefit displaced to the surrounding boroughs. Whilst the majority of MPS vehicles will either be exempt or receive a 100% discount from congestion charges, there will be an estimated £460K additional annual cost to the MPS for administration and to cover charges for the remaining vehicles and those used on covert operations. There are also staff recruitment and retention implications and, should the MPS decide that it needs to pay congestion charges for those shift workers for whom public transport is not easily available, a further estimated additional annual cost of £713K will be incurred.

A. Recommendations

1. The MPA note how the MPS intends to manage the impact of Congestion Charging in central London.
2. The MPA note that it is assessed that, annually, congestion charging will cost an estimated:

• £460K to cover necessary additional administration and charges for those vehicles not exempt or subject to 100% discount, or whose identities must be protected.
• £713K to cover the reimbursement of charges for selected shift staff on home to work travel, if the 6 week trial is extended permanently.
• Provision of £500K has been made in the draft budget for 2003/04. Costs incurred in excess of this provision will need to be met by offsetting savings made elsewhere.

B. Supporting information

The Congestion Charging Scheme

1. Transport for London (TfL) is due to introduce a congestion charging scheme in central London from Monday 17 February 2003. From that day, all vehicles travelling within the designated congestion charging zone will be required to pay a daily charge by phone, internet, post or at retail outlets. This charge will cover any number of journeys undertaken into, out of and within the zone that day. The scheme will be monitored by 230 automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras placed throughout the zone. There will be 174 entry and exit points at the boundary to the zone and roving teams will also check compliance of vehicles parked on the streets. The following charges will apply for vehicle movement inside the zone between 7am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday (excluding Public and Bank Holidays):

2. Motorcycles, buses/coaches with more than 8 seats and licensed in the bus class, alternative fuel cars, electrically propelled vehicles, 'Black' cabs, Royal Mail vehicles and disabled “Blue Badge” holders are given 100% discount on congestion charges.

Impact on Operational Policing

3. Response Times. The Congestion Charging Zone covers 8 square miles of central London, 1.3% of the Greater London area. It is predicted that the congestion charging regime should cut traffic levels by 10-15% and vehicle delays by 20-30% within the zone. This should have a beneficial impact on police response times inside the zone although, equally, congestion and response times immediately outside the zone could be adversely affected.

4. Crime Levels. It has also been anticipated that there will be a reduction in crime within the zone, particularly with regard to those crimes that are vehicle related or use vehicles, as a result of the ANPR system and the intelligence that the TfL computers can provide. However increased use of public transport might lead to more related crime and, in the longer term, congestion charging might also lead to displacement of businesses and reduced quality of life within the zone. Some crime will almost certainly be transferred to neighbouring boroughs outside the congestion zone.

5. Traffic Diversions. There will be occasions when, for operational reasons, police officers need to direct or divert vehicles into the charging zone. An MPS/TfL protocol has been agreed with TfL, which is similar to the notification system used with London Underground when requesting the power to be turned off. The officer responsible for the diversion records details on a Computer Aided Despatch message when the diversion begins and ends; TfL will act on those messages. If such a traffic diversion into the zone becomes necessary, a congestion charge will not be payable by the drivers affected. However, it is their individual responsibility to ensure that they leave the zone following the diversion. If they enter the zone at any other time during the same day, or deviate from the diversion, they will need to pay the charge.

6. Transport OCU Response. Discussions continue at a strategic level between TfL, Transport OCU and other interested parties to formulate an operational response post 17 February. At this stage, it is intended that a designated operation order will be in force to allow the Transport OCU to respond in real time as the effect of congestion charging becomes clearer.

MPS vehicles used within the zone

7. Exempt from Charge. Police vehicles, registered as such with the DVLA and exempt from taxation duty, are also exempt from the Congestion Charge. These are mainly the obviously marked and equipped response fleet of approximately 1800 vehicles.

8. Subject to 100% Discount. A number of MPS vehicles fall into the public 100% discount categories such as motorcycles, buses/coaches with more than 8 seats and alternative fuel vehicles. In addition, TfL has stated that other vehicles used for 'Operational' Police duties will be exempt from Congestion Charges. 'Operational' duties have been specifically defined as:

• Attending incidents
• Supervision
• Inquiries
• Investigation of offences
• Collection of prisoners
• Covert operations
• Patrol

9. Therefore certain other duties such as training and support transport (delivering mail and supplies for example) may not be covered and will incur congestion charges (but see Paragraph10 below concerning a challenge to this ruling.)

10. Use of Private Vehicles for Duty Purposes. TfL have agreed that MPS staff using their own vehicles can be included on the MPS registered fleet for the period they are being used for duty. These concessions by TfL will reduce the administrative burden on the MPS and avoid the need to increase the MPS fleet because officers are unwilling to use their own vehicles on duty due to the charge.

12. Covert Vehicles. The congestion charging scheme does not provide satisfactory arrangements to permit covert vehicles to take advantage of the 'operational policing' 100% discount and still maintain the required security of registration details. Drivers of such vehicles will have to pay the charge. There is currently no mechanism for obtaining an exemption or refund from TfL in these circumstances. However, TfL have agreed to support a submission, in due course, from the MPS to the GLA for a block refund.

13. Overall Impact. Overall, it is assessed that only approximately 300 MPS vehicles, of a fleet of 5000, plus those being used for covert operations will be subject to congestion charging. Furthermore, MPS legal opinion is that the TfL interpretation of the enabling legislation (The Greater London (Central Zone) Congestion Charging Order 2001) is ultra vires in that their definition of vehicles in use for "police purposes" is narrower than that allowed by the Order. In due course, a successful challenge to TfL on this point may further reduce MPS liability to congestion charges.

Administration of the Congestion Charging Scheme within the MPS

14. Following negotiations with TfL, it has been agreed that the MPS will be part of the Congestion Charging ‘Selected Partner Scheme’. The features of the scheme:

• Provide a secure centralised account based system for managing vehicles eligible for discount.
• Provide a web based system for convenience and ease of use.
• Allow vehicles to be added to and removed from the list of discounted vehicles by users nominated by the Selected Partner.
• Provide an instant registration system.

15. MPS Congestion Charging Unit. Under the terms of the TfL Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), that outlines how the Selected Partner Scheme is to be managed, the MPS is required to nominate a Relationship Manager, an Administrator and a number of Authorised Officers to operate the account. The Director of Transport Services has been nominated as the MPS Relationship Manager and he has formed a small MPS Congestion Charging Unit within Transport Services to administer the MPS account. Initially, this unit will be formed using three temporary staff until the long-term additional workload can be properly assessed. The Congestion Charging Unit's task will primarily involve keeping the fleet details up to date with TfL, adding/deleting vehicle details of staff using their own vehicles on official business and providing management information. It will also ensure strict compliance, particularly for users seeking a discount for their private vehicle to be used for duty purposes. Audit and compliance checks will be essential to convince TfL that the MPS is properly managing the scheme and not abusing its status as a ‘Selected Partner’.

16. Hire Vehicles. The MPS principal hire car contractor, National, has already been approached to make arrangements for the Congestion Charging Unit to be able to book all MPS hired vehicles onto the TfL information system using an electronic list provided daily. In addition, the option of only hiring alternative fuel vehicles - dual fuel/bi-fuel LPG vehicles - has also been explored and should be achievable in the medium term.

17. Penalties Incurred. If a member of staff using a vehicle on duty fails to arrange for the vehicle to be added to the database then a penalty charge will follow. It is proposed that all penalty charges will be paid promptly centrally to avoid escalation through the inevitable administrative delays. However the penalty charge will be passed onto to the respective BOCU/OCU to ensure future compliance.

18. Failure of the TfL Information System. The impact on the MPS of a failure of the TfL information system is assessed as being no different from that on the public in general apart from the loss of intelligence for the period that the system is down. Failure of the information system should not lead to traffic congestion or delays because of the ANPR methodology employed to control access to the zone. Some teething trouble and system overload are inevitably anticipated during the early days of the congestion charging regime.

Recruitment and retention of central London staff

19. The daily charge will apply to all vehicles within the zone, not just those entering and leaving, including those parked up on the public road (except for residents with parking permits). This means many shift workers would not avoid the daily charge. Concerns regarding the effect on the recruitment and retention of shift workers have led to the MPS Management Board agreeing to establish a pilot scheme to reimburse congestion charging costs for shift workers in a six-week pilot scheme from 17 February. It is directed at those staff, whose starting and/or finishing times are when public transport is not readily available, and who therefore have to drive to and/or from work for these shifts.

20. Staff who do not meet this criteria will be expected to meet the congestion charge and most people who travel to work in the charging zone will be expected to travel to work by public transport. The MPS will reimburse the flat rate costs (£5 per day) of the congestion charge for these shift workers. Penalty charges will not be reimbursed. Because this charge is deemed to be part of the normal cost of travelling to and from work, it will be subject to income tax.

21. Although there is no direct evidence to suggest that staff will want to leave or refuse to work in the zone, the pilot scheme will provide some breathing space for such issues to be properly reviewed. For example, the impact of the additional night bus routes serving the central area, as well as earlier start and later finish times for day routes need to be understood by shift staff. The cost of the six-week pilot has been estimated to be in the region of £70,000. There has been no commitment made that reimbursement of charges for those shift workers affected will continue after the pilot period.

Implementation

22. The MPS Congestion Charging Unit has been formed and, during January, the MoU with TfL will be signed, training undertaken with TfL and a Police Notice, providing full details for MPS staff of how the scheme will be managed, will be published. The impact of the scheme, how it is managed and whether the pilot reimbursement scheme for shift workers will be extended, will be reviewed in early March.

C. Equality and diversity implications

There are no equality or diversity implications outside those already specifically addressed by TfL within its congestion charging scheme and public transport initiatives.

D. Financial implications

1. The draft budget for 2003/04 includes £500K in respect of congestion charging. Costs identified above amount to around £460K in a full year (£58K for the Congestion Charging Unit in Transport Services and £400K+ for charges for covert vehicles).

2. The estimated full-year cost of reimbursing shift staff on home to work travel has been assessed by HR as £713K and this sum is not included in the draft 2003/04 budget. Offsetting savings would be needed elsewhere in the budget if it were decided to extend the pilot scheme.

3. Finance Services confirm that any costs incurred in 2002/03 in setting up the Congestion Charging unit and unavoidable congestion charges (e.g. for covert vehicles) incurred in February and March 2003 can be met from the overall forecast underspend position. HR has agreed to fund the cost of the pilot scheme for shift workers, estimated at up to £93K, from within its existing resources.

E. Background papers

Draft scrutiny report

F. Contact details

Report author: Stuart Middleton, Director of Transport Services, MPS

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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