Vehicle and Operator Services Agency

Vehicle and Operator Services Agency
Abbreviation	VOSA
Logo of the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency
Agency overview
Formed	3 April 2003
Preceding agencies	Vehicle Inspectorate Traffic Area Network
Dissolved	31 March 2014
Annual budget	£197 million
Legal personality	Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
National agency (Operations jurisdiction)	UK
Legal jurisdiction	England, Wales and Scotland
General nature	Law enforcement Civilian agency
Operational structure
Elected officer responsible	Stephen Hammond MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
Agency executive	Alastair Peoples, chief executive
Parent agency	Department for Transport
Website
www.gov.uk/vosa

Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) was an executive agency granted trading fund status in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Transport of the United Kingdom Government.

It was announced on 20 June 2013 that VOSA would merge with the Driving Standards Agency into a single agency in 2014. The name of the new agency was confirmed as the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) on 28 November 2013. VOSA was abolished on 31 March 2014, and its responsibilities passed to the DVSA on 1 April 2014.

The Agency was created from the merger of the Vehicle Inspectorate (VI) and the Traffic Area Network (TAN). The public are most aware of its activities through its regulation of the MOT vehicle inspection test in Great Britain. VOSA are generally better known by commercial vehicle operators as "The Ministry", a throwback to the days of the former Ministry of Transport (MOT). In Northern Ireland this role is performed by the Driver & Vehicle Agency.

In 2005 it had approximately 2,500 staff, 1,700 of which are based at its lorry testing garages across Great Britain.

Its examiners have been granted the ability to issue fixed penalty tickets from 1 April 2009. These cover a range of offences including breaches of drivers hours legislation, overloaded vehicles and also mechanical defects. These tickets can be issued to both UK and foreign nationals.

In the first 3 months since the implementation of fixed penalties, the Agency has taken more than £500,000 in fines.

Its customers where the Road Haulage and Public Service Vehicle (PSV) industries, trade associations, vehicle manufacturers, MOT garages, and offenders and defendants.

Under the Police Reform Act 2002, section 41 and Schedule 5,Chief Constables could grant powers (under a Community Safety Accreditation Scheme) to VOSA officers to stop vehicles, for checks on vehicle and driver compliance without the need for police support (later expanded to stop any vehicle, although mainly goods and passenger carrying vehicles). At that time, only police officers had the power to stop vehicles and therefore had to be present. The powers were piloted in 2003 and brought more widely into force in 2004.