Vehicle Excise Duty: Enforcement (Hansard, 10 April 1984)

§ Lord Underhill
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.
The Question was as follows: To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they propose to take to build up staff at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre, Swansea in order to enable it to recover unpaid vehicle excise duty.

§ Lord Lucas of Chilworth
My Lords, the Department of Transport has already improved the efficiency of its vehicle excise duty enforcement operations. With the help of the police, revenue from enforcement increased 50 per cent. in 1983, over the previous year. More remains to be done to improve efficiency. Our immediate aim is to make the best use of all the available resources.

§ Lord Underhill
My Lords, although I welcome the improvements which the Minister has just recounted, does he recall the Written Answer given in the other place on 2nd February, which indicated that, after allowing for the cases which were cleared up as a result of prosecutions or payments made out of court, there were still 550,000 cases which could not be satisfactorily settled? Is it not a fact that the Permanent Secretary of the Department of Transport has given evidence that at least 300,000 cases could not be followed up because of the shortage of staff, particu-larly at DVLC?

§ Lord Lucas of Chilworth
My Lords, I am aware of the Written Answer in the other place on 2nd February and, indeed, of the figures which the noble Lord. Lord Underhill, has quoted that the Permanent Secretary gave when he was before the Committee in the other place. The 300,000 cases which have not been concluded would not, however, necessarily have been satisfactorily concluded with an increase in the number of enforcement officers. The number of enforcement officers has been increased by 150 persons in the last 14 months—a higher figure than ever before.

§ Lord Gainford
My Lords, in the light of the information which we have just heard, is there any danger of DVLC Swansea becoming a mausoleum of parchment?

§ Lord Lucas of Chilworth
My Lords, if by "a mausoleum of parchment" my noble friend is referring to the amount of paperwork which lies around, that may be so. However, in fact there are over 50 million transmissions of documents as regards vehicles and over 18 million transmissions of 1030 documents with regard to drivers. So we are concerned with something like 60 million to 70 million pieces of paper which human beings require to register their vehicles and themselves.

§ Lord Underhill
My Lords, I am sorry to rise again, but the Minister did say that the Permanent Secretary of the Department had given evidence on the lines that I suggested. As everyone in this House believes, surely, in cost-effectiveness, is it not in the interests of everyone that there should be adequate staff to follow up the 300,000 cases which the Permanent Secretary gave evidence could not be followed up because of shortage of staff?

§ Lord Lucas of Chilworth
My Lords, the Department of Transport like other departments of state, is concerned with tax evasion and it does what it can to minimise it. As regards increasing the number of staff—and the noble Lord, Lord Underhill, has the figures at his fingertips as, indeed, I have them in the document—the noble Lord will also observe that the Permanent Secretary of my Department did say that that would not necessarily be a proper use of manpower. We have to increase the efficiency of those people whom we have in enforcement—one sixth of the total force—and the other technical arms that are available to us.

The Earl of Selkirk
My Lords, would it not help the manpower position if cars were licensed for two years with perhaps some small incentive, instead of for one year?

§ Lord Lucas of Chilworth
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for that suggestion. I hope that my noble friend will not misunderstand me when I say that this is one of the matters that has been considered on more than one occasion. We do not believe that that would be so, because of the huge number of vehicle transactions during the course of a year—that is, transfers and the like.

Lord Inglewood
My Lords, can my noble friend say who, in fact, is responsible for the enforcement of these provisions? We know that the police are responsible to a certain extent, but my noble friend also referred to enforcement officers. Who are they? Are there sufficient?

§ Lord Lucas of Chilworth
My Lords, there are nearly 1,000 enforcement officers in the Departmemt of Transport—about one sixth of the total force in the DVLC—who enforce licensing regulations. We are also helped considerably by the police. There have been 64 blitz campaigns in which the police have aided the department in enforcing licensing. We are grateful to the police, because this has had a very great impact as regards reducing the numbers of those attempting to evade the law in this respect.

§ Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos
My Lords, in the light of the noble Lord's replies can he say what steps his department are taking to improve productivity in Swansea? That seems to me to be the question which requires an answer, given that it is well accepted that the average efficiency of the staff in Swansea is at least 1031 as good as the average efficiency anywhere else in the noble Lord's department.

§ Lord Lucas of Chilworth
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord the Leader of the Opposition for his praise of the officers in our department in the DVLC. If I told him that about a quarter of a million documents come into the DVLC every morning and that about a quarter of a million documents go out every evening, he will recognise that that is a very high productivity rate for 4,000 people. As regards enforce-ment by the field force, when the new computer arrangements are completed in the middle of next year, we anticipate that this will speed up the time taken to identify miscreants, if that is the word, or evaders of tax. This will enable those field officers to get on to their cases very much faster, and will result in a higher rate of productivity.

§ Viscount Hanworth
My Lords, can the noble Lord the Minister say whether there is any reason why traffic wardens should not check on licences at the same time as they check on illegal parking, and report back to the police?

§ Lord Lucas of Chilworth
My Lords, in the course of their duties traffic wardens observe. Where an offence for which they have responsibility is committed and there is another offence—for example, a missing road fund VED disc—they would report that offence. However, there are difficulties with the identification of such reports.

§ Lord Leatherland
My Lords, as it appears that the existing staff cannot cope adequately and promptly with their task, will the noble Lord consider making licences completely free for people of 85 years of age and over?

§ Lord Lucas of Chilworth
My Lords, I cannot accept what the noble Lord, Lord Leatherland, said in the first part of his question. We believe that our enforce-ment officers are hardworking and that their numbers are adequate. As regards the matter of free licences, I do not think that the noble Lord means that to be taken seriously, because 1 am sure he would accept that all of us who enjoy the benefits of using a car have to pay the taxes that accrue.