Lord de CLIFFORDMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government, in view of the increasing use of false vehicle number plates for criminal purposes, whether they will take steps 1343 to control the issue of such plates, and, when issued, to make them readily traceable to their source of origin.
§ Lord MELCHETTMy Lords, I do not think that such measures could, in practice, achieve the desired results.
Lord de CLIFFORDMy Lords. I thank the noble Lord for that extremely brief reply. Is he aware that weekly on the "Police 5" programme on ATV, with Shaw Taylor, there are repeated appeals regarding the tracing of false number plates which have been used for criminal purposes? The Whittle case which is now being investigated is one example. Surely there should be some method of being able to control the issue of number plates so that they cannot be used for criminal purposes?
§ Lord MELCHETTMy Lords, the Government's view is that it would not be practicable to devise a system of: control without it consuming a disproportionate quantity of administrative resources, and in any event being easily open to abuse. I should also say that we are not aware of any general demand from within the Police Service for any measures such as those suggested by the noble Lord.
§ Lord DERWENTMy Lords, are not many of the false number plates manufactured by the criminals?
§ Lord MELCHETTMy Lords, I imagine that all false number plates are either manufactured by people who have not got the relevant registration book for that particular number plate, or are stolen from other cars. One of the problems with any new system would be that all existing number plates would have to be scrapped and new ones issued to avoid the old number plates being stolen.