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In this Issue

	A Voice that is Heard in Europe
	Enforcement: An Essential Public Service
	Transposition of the Financial Penalties Framework Decision into UK Law
	Road Safety Directive Update
	Eurosparks Two
	About SPARKS
	Legal Disclaimer
	Data Privacy
	Feedback

In Other News

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Welcome to the June edition of the SPARKS Programme online newsletter, which highlights issues impacting enforcement of decriminalised and administrative penalty charges in the UK and other EU member states. We hope you find the contents interesting and useful in your job.

A Voice that is Heard in Europe

The SPARKS Programme is launching a network on 26 June to harness influencing and lobbying among national traffic organisations across the European Union.

SPARKS Network members will be able to participate in research into traffic enforcement, collaborative working to resolve cross-border enforcement issues and influencing campaigns, as well as sharing knowledge and best practice.

For more information on registering as a network member visit Unified EU voice for traffic authorities.

Enforcement: An Essential Public Service

Cross-border enforcement, persistent evaders and fairness and consistency for all drivers are among the issues being debated at the fourth annual Enforcement Task Force Conference.

Patrick Troy, Transport for London’s head of traffic enforcement, and Bill Blakemore SPARKS programme manager, are speaking about best practice emerging through SPARKS and Eurosparks activities.

Other speakers include Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP; Jeroen Weimar, Chief Operating Officer, Enforcement and Compliance, Transport for London; Richard Buckley, Head of Local Transport Policy, Department for Transport; and Sheila Rainger, campaigns manager, RAC Foundation.

The conference is recommended for local authority employees with parking and traffic enforcement responsibilities as well as parking operators, consultants, road interest groups and academics.

For more information and to book your place for this one-day conference on Thursday 26 June in London visit Enforcement: An Essential Public Service.

Transposition of the Financial Penalties Framework Decision into UK Law

Council Framework Decision 2005/214/JHA applying the principle of mutual recognition to financial penalties was transposed into UK law on 8 May via the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill.

The UK is one of the first member states to transpose the Framework Decision, known as COPEN 24. It has a number of shortcomings in relation to enforcement of civil penalties; these along with the enforcement processes are assessed in the SPARKS Programme website.

Transposition of the Framework Decision

Road Safety Directive Update

The European Commission’s proposed road safety directive is moving into the next stage of its legislative process. During June two European Parliament committees will debate the draft directive; the Transport Committee led by Socialist Rapporteur MEP Inès Ayala Sender from Spain, and within the Civil Liberties and Justice Committee led by Liberal Democrat MEP Renate Weber from Romania.

Both committees are expected to begin considering the draft directive towards the end of June and to continue their debate through July until the summer recess.

Votes within the committees are likely during September with final adoption of the directive currently scheduled for the week beginning 21 October. However it is possible this timing will be delayed.

The proposed directive facilitating cross-border enforcement in the field of road safety (COM (2008) 0151) was published on 19 March 2008 and is the only piece of European legislation currently addressing decriminalised enforcement across borders.

For more information visit the European Commission website.

Eurosparks Two

SPARKS submitted its application for €174,000 to the European Commission’s Civil Justice funding programme on 27 May 2008. The bid included letters of support from HM Courts Service, Department for Transport, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Bruges and Winchester city councils, the charity Road Peace, RDW the Dutch  vehicle licensing agency and Polis.

Twenty-five partners from Bulgaria, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, France, Poland, Ireland and The Netherlands have now committed to Eurosparks Two.

SPARKS should hear if its application is successful by late summer. The research project will then run for 14 months culminating in dissemination of the findings at a conference in Brussels.

Eurosparks Two announced

About SPARKS

The SPARKS Programme is an initiative that enables local authorities in the UK and EU member states to collaborate in resolving the issue of cross-border enforcement of civil traffic contraventions.

Our objective is for traffic enforcement to be equally effective against all vehicles irrespective of nationality. Aims include identifying legislative solutions, increasing awareness of the issues within government, working with local authorities to seek common solutions and gathering data to build a coherent picture of the size and impact of the issue.

Find out more about SPARKS

Legal Disclaimer

The SPARKS Programme works hard to ensure that information on our websites is up-to-date and accurate and that applications function correctly.

Our terms and conditions
 

Data Privacy

The SPARKS Programme will treat any personal information that you provide to us in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998.

We will not share any of your personal information with third parties unless it is in response to a lawful request for information such as a court order, witness summons, or complaint from a government authority. Your personal information will also not be sold to third parties.

Privacy policy

Feedback

We welcome your views on this ezine, which should be addressed to the editor Jo Ann Sweeney at jo.ann@sweeneyuk.com