Select committee: Transport Committee
Recommendation 17
Fourth Report - Road pricing
Published 4 Feb 2022
Paragraph 44
Addressed to Department for Transport
Transport Committee Road pricing All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
To fulfil their respective and connected responsibilities for managing congestion and maintaining the public finances, the DfT and the Treasury must jointly establish an arm’s-length body with an appointed individual to evaluate its preferred options to replace fuel duty and vehicle excise duty [see paragraph 26]. The body should consult experts on road planning, taxation and telematic technology, and it should consider international experience. It should be tasked with recommending an alternative road charging mechanism to replace fuel duty and vehicle excise duty by the end of 2022.
From: Transport Committee, Fourth Report - Road pricing (HC 789), paragraph 44, 4 February 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 6 March 2023 (deadline 4 April 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government's position is that it "does not currently have plans to consider road pricing", and it has not responded to the Committee's individual recommendations.
- The Chancellor says the Government is "focused on delivering its core priorities, as set out in the 2019 manifesto", and the Exchequer Secretary adds that the immediate focus has been inflation and the cost of living.
- On electric vehicles, the Government states that from 2025 electric cars, vans and motorcycles "will pay Vehicle Excise Duty in the same way as petrol and diesel vehicles".
- The Government says motoring tax revenue "will need to keep pace with this change, while remaining affordable for consumers", and that it "will continue to keep all tax policy under review".
- On fuel duty, the Government "will confirm future policy on fuel duty in the Budget in the Spring".