Good evening, Chairman and members of the committee. After this short presentation I will be happy to discuss it in detail. Accompanying me is Jennifer Gilna, head of corporate affairs at the commission.
The Commission for Taxi Regulation was established in September 2004 as an independent public body under the Taxi Regulation Act 2003. The principal function of the commission is the development and maintenance of a regulatory framework for the control and operation of small public service vehicles, their drivers and dispatch operators. I will probably use the abbreviated term, SPSV, throughout the meeting. Our mission is to achieve a first class professional, efficient, safe, accessible and customer friendly service for small public service vehicle passengers and for service providers.
Since we were established in 2004, the commission has carried out extensive consultation on the services and vehicle standards provided by the industry. We started a national review of vehicle standards and services in 2005. Following from the review, we entered into a consultation process with the industry on proposals for changes in the industry. In October 2005, we entered into a third consultation process on the national taxi metre areas and national taxi fares. We received more than 400 submissions and met stakeholders nationally. We also consulted the advisory council to the Commission for Taxi Regulation, which is established under Part lV of our primary legislation. This council advises on various issues pertaining to small public service vehicles. We carried out a regular impact assessment on forthcoming regulations and took into account the principles set out in the Government's White Paper on better regulation.
We introduced a number of reforms in 2006 and 2007, including a national vehicle licensing system, national register of licences, national taxi metre area, national taxi fare, national complaints system, enhanced consumer protection, improved information awareness, national consumer and industry telephone lines and stronger enforcement.
We commenced a fourth consultation on vehicle standards in December 2006. We felt this consultation process was required and we received more than 190 submissions. Again, we met stakeholders and representative bodies in the industry throughout the country and we sought advice from the advisory council to the commission. We published our new vehicle standards in November 2007.
We have several new reforms planned for 2008 and 2009. They are included in the action plan we published last week and which has been distributed to members. Included in those are the implementation of the new vehicle standards published last November, our new skills development programme for drivers and dispatch operators throughout the country, the licensing of dispatch operators, the administration of licensing of SPSV drivers, improved services for people with disabilities, the development of national guidelines incorporating accessibility and the development of a quality assurance scheme for the industry.
We have a small dedicated team to meet our statutory objectives. In the documentation given to members I have set out a list of the daily operations conducted by the commission's team. The three core areas of licensing which we will undertake in the form of our new action plan in 2008 and 2009 are vehicle licensing, small public service vehicle driver licensing and dispatch operator licensing.
To date, we have ensured effective and efficient operations through outsourcing. The document circulated sets out for members all of the areas in which we have outsourced to date including, national vehicle licensing, which is operated through 43 centres nationally, contact management with industry, consumer telephone lines which received 84,000 calls during 2007, administration support, public awareness campaigns, public relations and internal organisational requirements such as IT support and finance. We will continue to outsource during 2008 and 2009 in respect of new reforms including, administration of SPSV driver licensing, dispatch operator licensing, the skills development programme and testing and assessment of that programme. We will seek to employ additional staff to support these outsourcing projects.
On the commission's budget, the Taxi Regulation Act 2003 provides for licence fees to accrue to the commission and as such it is a self-financing body. Currently, the fees collected are for vehicle licensing and this will extend to fees for driver licensing and dispatch operator licensing. Also, fixed penalty charges for a number of offences are payable to the commission. Income from fees will be applied for the purposes of meeting the commission's expenses. Any surplus of income will be disposed of in a manner as determined by the commission with the agreement of the Minister for Transport and the Minister for Finance.
As provided in the Taxi Regulation Act 2003, the commission submits it accounts and annual reports to the Minister for Transport within three months of the end of each financial year. I am happy to discuss or elaborate on any of the issues raised.