A Department for Transport call for evidence (CFE) has found that delays and inefficiencies are weakening the Home Office Type Approval (HOTA) process for new road safety devices.
Department officials said the ‘detailed evidence and insights’ will inform recommendations to improve the HOTA RTLED assurance system, ‘which will be taken forward by the programme working closely with our stakeholders’.
Suppliers of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and enforcement products connected to the HOTA process - such as speedmeters and breath testing equipment - argued the system urgently needed reform.
ITS UK - which presents the ITS industry - said manufacturers had reported delays of between three and five years, with opaque procedures and decisions that were 'difficult to understand'.
ITS UK chief executive Max Sugarman said: ‘While the UK is highly-regarded in its high standards of enforcement equipment, the HOTA process is now causing delays to innovative new products that could increase safety on our road network.
‘We very much welcome the Home Office's work on this issue and look forward to working with them and industry to act on these findings.
‘A more transparent and open approval process – that maintains a robust approach to equipment – will have far reaching benefits for both road users and enforcement technology suppliers.’
The DfT ran the CFE on the Home Office type approval (HOTA) process for road traffic law enforcement devices (RTLED) from January to February 2024.
The results suggested that while the HOTA system had strengths, ‘namely being sufficiently robust to support law enforcement outcomes and engender public trust in the evidence from RTLED equipment’, respondents reported delays and inefficiencies.
The CFE followed a campaign last summer by ITS UK.
