The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), the Road Safety Trust and Road Safety Support (RSS) have unveiled new arrangements for the ownership and management of the National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme (NDORS).
From 1 April, NDORS’ ownership will transfer from NDORS Ltd to UKROEd Ltd, the trading subsidiary of the Road Safety Trust, a registered charity set up to support road safety research and practical interventions.
Road Safety GB has welcomed the new structure.
NDORS came into being in 2008 as an alternative to prosecution for drivers who have committed road traffic offences. NDORS Ltd was set up as a not-for-profit company to manage and operate the scheme on behalf of ACPO (now NPCC).
Under the new arrangements, NDORS’ ownership will lie with the police forces of England, Wales and Northern Ireland who are members of the Road Safety Trust.
Chief constable Suzette Davenport, the NPCC’s national roads policing lead and chair of the Road Safety Trust, will oversee NDORS.
CC Davenport and UKROEd have signed a Memorandum of Understanding setting out the service level agreements required to ensure that the scheme is operated efficiently and effectively on a day-to-day basis.
Rob Gifford, chief executive of the Road Safety Trust and UKROEd Ltd, said: "I am delighted we have completed this transition smoothly and with the support of NDORS Ltd. It was our intention to achieve a seamless transition.
“Operationally this will not make any difference to police forces and partnerships.
“What is important is that the Trust will be able to support road safety activity and UKROEd will seek to build on high quality courses as an educational alternative to enforcement. I look forward to working with our partners to achieve this."
Honor Byford, chair of Road Safety GB, said: “Road Safety GB welcomes the creation of UKROEd under the auspices of the Road Safety Trust.
“The effective education of road users to improve the safety of everyone who uses our roads is our shared priority and has strong public support.
“The development of the Road Safety Trust and its aims of supporting road safety research, development and practice to reduce deaths and injuries is a major new opportunity to support progress in this life-saving field.”
Speaking on behalf of both RSS and NDORS Ltd, Meredydd Hughes (left), executive chairman of RSS, said: “We welcome the creation of UKROEd Ltd and the Road Safety Trust. These new structures enable us to complete the original purpose of the project and to transfer the scheme to a charity.
“From the outset, it was envisaged that as the project grew, other mechanisms for delivering it would be developed. The new charity, the Road Safety Trust, will now benefit from the world of driving re-training courses. This has been a long-cherished ambition of all of us who set up the scheme and it is a culmination of all our hard work over the years.
“We created NDORS Ltd to ensure transparency in the operation of driver offending re-education schemes. The various reviews that have scrutinised NDORS have consistently identified that the directors acted with the highest propriety in stewarding the scheme.
“During the transition to the new arrangement, a specialist adviser commented that the original Articles of Association – developed by the directors – had been written in ‘the best interests of public service and could have been used as the basis of a charity’.
“RSS will continue to work with UKROEd and the Road Safety Trust to ensure that our shared vision of making UK roads safer for all road users is achieved, and we look forward to supporting them.”
Could we now expect some robust studies and research with regard to the efficacy of the Speed Course and other simialr diversionary programmes. To continue to deliver reports based on self-reporting forms completed pre and post course is a rather poor and cheap means to prove the benefit.
Keith
0
The RSS website, referring to their staff, says “They were all hand-picked for their road safety experience, skills and professionalism”. Mr Meredydd Hughes was no doubt incuded because of his experience in having had, according to the press, three speeding convictions, one of which was so bad, it led to a driving ban. For me, that doesn’t inspire trust or confidence in such organisations.
Hugh Jones, Cheshire
0