To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the Driver Quality Monitoring (DQM) programme is; how DQM assessments are conducted on bus drivers; against what scoring system drivers are assessed; and how much DQM generated for the Driving Standards Agency in each financial year since 2000-01. (156060)

Driver Quality Monitoring (DQM) is a non-statutory service that the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) performs on behalf of bus companies. Assessors travel incognito on random bus routes and assess the ability of the driver over a 20-minute period. The Assessors then prepare a report for the relevant bus operator.

The scoring system on which the drivers are assessed is:

A four band score against 10 aspects of passenger consideration (supporting explanatory comments given)

A four band score against 13 aspects of driving ability (supporting explanatory comments given)

Box 1 = Fully acceptable,

Box 2 = Acceptable with some driving faults,

Box 3 = Unacceptable with serious faults,

Box 4 = Unacceptable with dangerous faults.

Nine safety comments (Such as handling cash in motion or talking to person while driving)

This is in addition to other aspects against which an operator may require feedback such as service frequency, uniform being worn.

DSA has received the income in the following table since 2003-04.

DSA had not recorded income before 2003-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many assessments on drivers were carried out as part of the Driver Quality Monitoring (DQM) programme in each financial year since 2000-01; and how many drivers were (a) assessed as unacceptable with serious faults and (b) assessed as unacceptable with dangerous faults in each year. (156061)

The number of Driving Quality Monitoring assessments carried out by the Driving Standards Agency for the last seven years is shown in the table as follows.

The number of drivers who committed serious faults on their DQM assessments is in the table as follows.

The number of drivers who committed dangerous faults on their DQM assessments is in the table as follows.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport which companies hired the Driver Standards Agency to conduct driver quality monitoring in each financial year since 2000-01 (156062)

The number of companies for which the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) conducts Driving Quality Monitoring is in the following table, split into financial years.

DSA cannot name the companies involved, owing to the nature of the contractual relationship.