VI bosses secretly filmed staff at work by Karen Miles
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and Rob Willock • Vehicle Inspectorate staff are up in arms over revelations that they were secretly filmed by their untrusting bosses at a roadside check. Senior traffic examiner Bob Harper wrote a damning letter to the VI's former chief executive Ron Oliver after he discovered his enforcement team had been spied on in Dagenham last September. Examiners are also understood to have been filmed at Dover.
Managers at the VI's Bristol head office were covertly checking their traffic and vehicle examiners' work, suspicious that they were not checking as many vehicles as they were reporting.
The VI has been hit by criticism from hauliers and lawyers that its examiners have been "talking up" enforcement figures to meet targets. The surveillance was allegedly meant to investigate these claims. But sources say the operation was bungled and the camera only managed to film a traffic queue at a junction near the A13 test centre.
Harper's complaints have been taken seriously: the VI has brought in independent arbitrator Elizabeth Hodder to examine the case and look at internal management techniques.
A spokeswoman says: "We can confirm that Bob Harper made a complaint, that it referred to the surveillance operation, and that there is a case out with the arbitrator, but we cannot comment on that. It was an unusual case— that's why surveillance was carried out— and we'll issue details when the investigation is complete."
Harper was unavailable for comment.