DVLA

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Record numbers of untaxed vehicles are being seized in a nationwide crackdown on rogue drivers. Up to 9,000 cars a month are being immobilised or towed away, with 562 collared in one day in November when the operation began. The figure is expected to rise to more than 100,000 a year, double the number of a year ago. Many of the vehicles are also found to be uninsured or to have no MOT. A fleet of hi-tech "robo-vans" with banks of cameras that continuously scan rows of parked cars is patrolling every street in the UK in the DVLA's 'clamp and crush' blitz on the estimated 1.55 million car tax evaders.

More than 300 enforcement officers using the vans equipped with automatic number plate recognition technology can instantly spot any vehicle using the roads without up to date tax. Much of the work is being carried out for the DVLA by contractor NCP Services. Tim Cowen, of NCP Services, said, "We have gradually been building up intelligence about the pattern of untaxed vehicles in the UK and are in a much better position to target offenders. With the new targeted hitsquads we can be even more efficient at getting these vehicles off the streets."

Each van can scan up to 10,000 vehicles a day, checking registration numbers against a list of wanted cars flagged up by the DVLA or police. The DVLA insists it will target only the most persistent offenders. Owners of clamped vehicles must pay a release fee of £80 and a valid vehicle licence must be produced. They will also be pursued for any back tax. Vehicles that are impounded and not claimed after seven days could be crushed.

Bethan Beasley, of the DVLA's wheel-clamping unit, said, "The people whose vehicles have been removed or clamped are hardcore offenders, not people who have just missed renewing their tax by a few days, but people who have shown no intention of taxing their vehicles. Routinely we find such vehicles have no insurance or MOT. These vehicles are dangerous and the best thing to do is immobilise them or get them off the streets as soon as possible." (Source: Daily Mail, Jan/08)

Under new government plans to target Britain’s 1.5 million uninsured drivers, motorists who fail to renew their car insurance will receive automatic £100 fines even if they do not use their cars. Those who fail to pay the fines will have their cars clamped or impounded and, to recover them, will have to pay a release fee on top of the fine and prove that they are insured. The fines will be issued even if drivers are storing their cars on private driveways. The measures are designed to reduce the £500 million annual toll of uninsured drivers involved in accidents.

Police gained powers at the end of 2005 to seize uninsured cars but to use their powers they have to catch the driver at the wheel. Under the new offence of keeping a vehicle while uninsured, the onus will be on drivers to prove that they have insurance or have completed a statutory off-road notification. Drivers will accumulate further £100 fines if they fail to buy insurance after receiving the first fine. The Department for Transport has yet to decide exactly how the penalty system will work, but drivers may initially be sent a letter telling them they are committing an offence and giving them an opportunity to purchase insurance.

Edmund King, the RAC Foundation's director, said that there were dangers in creating an offence which assumed that people were guilty even when their only crime was not to have filled out the correct form. He added, “This will also only catch those people who are already known to the DVLA. The problem with the motoring underclass is that those who pose the greatest risk to others do not appear on databases.” (Source: Times Online, Feb/07)

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is selling the names and home addresses of motorists on its drivers' database to convicted criminals at £2.50 a time. The two bosses of one clamping firm on the list of companies to whom the DVLA is happy to sell drivers' details are currently serving seven years' jail between them for extorting money from motorists.

Details of millions of drivers have been made available to bailiffs, credit control companies, debt collection agencies, property management firms, leisure centres, solicitors, and even one of the world's biggest loan and financial services companies. A number of other companies on the list appear to be dissolved or simply not to exist.

The DVLA said it has a legal obligation to sell the information to anyone who can show "reasonable cause" for having it, such as approved car-park operators who want to trace drivers who have overstayed and incurred a fine. It also confirmed that a criminal record was no bar to receiving drivers' names and home addresses.

DVLA chiefs claim they have the right to disclose personal information but a spokesman for the Department for Constitutional Affairs, which is responsible for data protection, said the practice should stop immediately. The DVLA appears to be the only government department or agency which sells personal data to third parties. Revenue and Customs, the Department for Work and Pensions and the UK Passport Service and others all said they had no power to sell private details to outsiders. (Source: Mail on Sunday)

The DVLA has proposed a range of charges for motorists to pay for new EU-style driving licences. It says that it needs to raise £42 million to pay for driving licences with photographs to comply with EU regulations and to improve security in the system. A £3 annual registration fee is one of three options under review. A second option would make first-time drivers foot the bill with the cost of a driving licence almost doubling from £38 to £68. A third would raise the cost of the licence to £45, and the cost of registering a new car from £38 to £45.

In 2008 ten-year photocard licences, first issued in 1998, will start to come up for renewal in line with EU rules. Under all three options, drivers would have to pay £19 to renew them. Motoring groups, urging drivers to fight a £3 charge, said that if it were introduced in 2008 as suggested it would soon be rising towards £10. Chris Grayling, the Shadow Transport Secretary, said, “DVLA has told us there are about 900,000 cars missing from its records, about 3 per cent of the total. Any new charges would encourage even more people to try to stay outside the system and not be registered at all.” (Source: Times Online, May/06)