To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what arrangements for conducting tests and keeping proper records have to be in place before he will grant his approval to the appointment of delegated examiners. (87836)

Before an organisation is approved to use delegated examiners it is visited by the local Supervising Driving Examiner. This is to confirm that all the necessary arrangements are in place to ensure that driving tests are conducted fairly and properly and under similar conditions to those conducted by DSA’s own examiners.

Delegated examiners are required to submit monthly returns to DSA including pass and fail statistics and the number of pass certificates and driving test reports issued. They are also required to notify the Agency if they have not conducted any tests during the month.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether the Driver Standards Agency has a dedicated team of people who supervise the operations of Passenger Carrying Vehicle delegated examiners. (87844)

The Driving Standards Agency's (DSA) sector managers are responsible for supervising delegated examiners. All sector managers are supervising driving examiners who undertake this quality assurance work as part of their general standards maintenance duties. DSA has 38 sector managers in post.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many staff in the Driver Standards Agency work solely on conducting supervised Passenger Carrying Vehicle delegated examiner check tests. (87845)

None. The 38 sector managers in the Driving Standards Agency undertake this quality assurance work as part of their general standards maintenance duties.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether research has been undertaken by his Department into the effectiveness and safety of Passenger Carrying Vehicle delegated examiners conducting tests. (87851)

No research has been undertaken.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when passenger carrying vehicle delegated examiners were first introduced. (87852)

Delegated examiners for the passenger carrying transport industry were introduced by a predecessor to the Department for Transport at least 30 years ago. Responsibility for the scheme passed to the Driving Standards Agency when the Agency was established in September 1990.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what fee is charged by the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) to train a passenger carrying vehicle (PCV) delegated examiner; and what income DSA has earned from training PCV delegated examiners in each of the last three financial years. (87853)

The charge for each full four-week course is £4,000 per trainee. Trainees who need to repeat only part of the course pay a proportional fee.

The income generated from delegated PCV examiner training fees in each of the last three financial years was:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many actual supervised (check) driving tests the Driving Standards Agency undertook on passenger carrying vehicle delegated examiners in each the last three financial years; and how many tests were cancelled in each year. (87855)

78 supervisory tests were conducted during the period 2005-06. No data about supervisory tests were collected before that time.

No supervisory tests have been cancelled.