S.I. 2007/1890: memorandum from the Department for Transport

Traffic Management Act 2004 (Commencement No.4 and Transitional Provisions) (England) Order 2007 (S.I. 2007/1890)

By a letter dated 20th February 2008 the Committee has asked for a memorandum on the following point—

This instrument was made in June 2007 and published the following month. Why were copies of it not supplied to the Committee until January 2008?

The Department has investigated this matter thoroughly. It is the firmly established practice of the relevant officials in the Department to send copies of statutory instruments to the Committee as soon as they have been made.

Unfortunately, the Department's current procedures are not such as to provide evidence of the despatch to, or safe receipt by, the Committee Secretariat of copy instruments. Accordingly, whilst we believe copies of S.I. 2007/1890 were despatched to the Committee shortly after it was made in June 2007, we do not have evidence that this was in fact the case.

It was only when the Department received an email dated 18th January 2008 from the Committee's Secretary that the Department realised that the Committee were not in possession of copies of S.I. 2007/1890. Copies of the instrument were then immediately dispatched to the Committee.

The Department greatly regrets that, for whatever reason, in this particular case the Committee did not receive copies of the instrument immediately after it was made.

The Department fully appreciates the importance of the Committee promptly receiving copies of all instruments and it is accordingly urgently revising its procedures so that they incorporate adequate checks that copies are both promptly despatched to, and duly received by, the Committee.

Department for Transport

25th February 2008