§ 2.50 p.m.
§ Lord PLATTMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they are aware that the holder of a driving licence of the new type is allowed to clip off the corner revealing his age but that the "driver number" at the top of the licence is a simple code from which the date of birth can at once be ascertained; and whether this does not create a false impression of confidentiality.
§ Lord MELCHETTMy Lords, the date of birth is needed to distinguish between drivers of the same name whose records are held at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre. The date appears in full only on the first new-type licence issued to drivers so that they may check its accuracy and avoid later problems of identification. It remains on this and later licences as part of the identifying driver number but in scrambled form to make it less obvious at a glance. There is no obligation to show one's licence to anyone except the police or the courts: both have powers to ask for the date of birth if the licence is not produced.
§ Lord PLATTMy Lords, may I thank the noble Lord for that highly unsatisfactory Answer? Is the noble Lord aware that the same object would be achieved by putting the date of birth boldly on the licence and not pretending that something else is being done? My Lords, I had another point in mind which I wanted to put. I cannot quite recall it at the moment and I will leave the matter there.
§ Lord MELCHETTMy Lords, I am gratified to think that such an unsatisfactory Answer has left the noble Lord speechless. There is no attempt at pretence or to mislead anybody. The date of birth is put quite clearly at the bottom of the licence and can be removed if the licence holder wishes to do that. The date of birth is also used in the driver record number and is merely "scrambled" slightly so that a person looking at it cannot immediately tell the date of birth. 10 However, it is necessary that the date of birth should be used in this number.
§ Lord PLATTMy Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord. Having remembered my second point, may I ask him whether he realises that the only person to whom I have ever shown my licence is a policeman?
§ Lord MELCHETTIf that is so, my Lords, I fail to understand where the issue of confidentiality arises. As I have said, the police already have the power to require a driver to tell them his date of birth if there is a failure to produce the licence.
§ Viscount AMORYMy Lords, would the noble Lord also remember that the date of my birth, going back to four days before the end of the last century, is a never-ending source of satisfaction and pride to me?