Institutional arrangements - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 158

Table 10.2 The structuring of Central Government in relation to transport, planning and the
environment 1997-2008 (Secretaries of State shown in brackets)
Transport

Planning Environment

1997 DETR - Dept Environment, Transport and the Regions (John Prescott)

2001 DTLR - Dept Transport, Local Government and the

Regions (Stephen Byers)

Defra - Dept Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs
(Margaret Beckett)

2002 DfT - Dept for Transport

(Alistair Darling)

ODPM - Office of the
Deputy Prime Minister
(John Prescott)

2005 (David Miliband)

2006 (Douglas Alexander) DCLG - Dept of

Communities and Local
Government (Ruth Kelly)

2007 (Ruth Kelly) (Hazel Blears) (Hilary Benn)

2008 (Geoff Hoon) [Climate change

responsibility transferrred
to separate new DECC (Ed
Miliband)]

Tony Blair to Gordon Brown. Kelly was transferred to Transport whilst her post of
Communities Secretary was taken by Hazel Blears. Ruth Kelly's tenure at Transport
also lasted barely a year, resigning in the summer of 2008. She was replaced in an
October reshuffle by the long-serving middle-ranking Minister Geoff Hoon.
DfT, DCLG and Defra are not the only government departments with a significant
interest in transport. Transport is a major area of Central Government expenditure,
and transport taxation is also an important source of revenue. Policy responsibility for
these areas resides with the Treasury and both the Chancellor of the Exchequer and
the Chief Secretary (responsible for public spending) are members of the Cabinet.
Gordon Brown held the post of Chancellor throughout the ten years of Tony Blair's
Premiership and Alistair Darling succeeded him in 2007.
Like other departments DfT is in a supplicant position to the Treasury as far as
its share of overall government spending is concerned. Its 'success' will depend on
satisfying the Treasury view of what constitutes value for money. The Treasury also
has a reputation for high-handedness and lack of consultation with other departments
when advancing its own proposals. Famously it is known not to have consulted either
the Departments of Transport or the Environment before the fuel duty escalator was
introduced in 1993 (despite the environmental benefits claimed for it).

Treasury officials may well discuss specific issues with officials from other
departments from time to time … but it suits the Treasury well enough to spread
the cloak of budget secrecy over all the key decisions on both spending and
taxation, which obliges the Chancellor to take many important decisions within a
very small circle of Treasury officials. Such an absence of properly informed debate,
even behind closed doors, would be a matter of concern in any circumstances.
It is particularly serious when prices (heavily influenced by taxation) are a key
component of any transport strategy.

(Glaister et al. 1998 p. 62)