Traffic Management Act 2004 survey

In June 2019 the Local Government Association (LGA) conducted an online survey of traffic management officers on the Traffic Management Act 2004.

View all Research articles

The Traffic Management Act 2004 introduced civil enforcement of traffic offences in England and Wales. Part 6 of the Act allows councils outside of London to enforce moving traffic offences. The results will be used to inform the LGA’s policy position on this issue and to demonstrate to Government whether there is still a need for more effective traffic management powers.

An online survey was sent to officers responsible for traffic management in all 118 single and upper tier councils in England; London councils were excluded from the survey as these powers already exist in London under separate legislation. A total of 65 submitted responses – a response rate of 55 per cent.

Key messages

  • Nine in 10 respondents said that their authority would consider using the full powers of the Traffic Management Act (2004) including Part 6 if it was available.  
  • Over nine in 10 responding authorities said that based on existing evidence of their local roads the most common issues that their local authority would use the Traffic Management Act to improve were safety (95 per cent) and congestion (92 per cent). 
  • Around nine in 10 (89 per cent) respondents said that should the Government agree, their council would like to be considered for any future trials of the enforcement of moving traffic conventions.
  • Sixty seven per cent (43 respondents) said that the police do not currently actively enforce any moving traffic offences in their local authority area.