HL Deb 20 February 1989 vol 504 cc391-3

2.51 p.m.

Baroness Fisher of Rednal asked Her Majesty's Government:

When they expect to have worked out a detailed scheme for selling cherished number plates.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Transport (Lord Brabazon of Tara)

My Lords, work is continuing on the proposals announced by my right honourable friend on 27th July 1988. Sales need legislation. Further details about the timetable will be given when the legislation is introduced.

Baroness Fisher of Rednal

My Lords, I thank the Minister for that Answer. Will he ask his noble friend to consider selling the number plates that are held at Swansea to charitable organisations? In other words, could auctions be organised and the money raised by the auctions dispensed to charities that deal particularly with the disabled and the disabled motorists—for example, PHAB, Motability and many others?

Lord Brabazon of Tara

My Lords, I agree that the idea is attractive in principle, but unfortunately the rules of Government accounting would not allow the department to divert revenue away from the Consolidated Fund and use it as a covert grant in aid. The department is however investigating alternative approaches to make the sales attractive and that will form part of the announcement in due course.

Baroness Fisher of Rednal

My Lords, I am disappointed with that reply. One reads and is constantly told that the country's economy is raring away. We have billions to pay off the national debt. Is it not possible for the Minister to put it quite seriously to his honourable friend that the Treasury, instead of clawing everything back, could use the funds to help the disabled? One would have thought that this Tory Government would have considered the caring aspect of getting rid of these number plates.

Lord Brabazon of Tara

My Lords, this issue is already before my right honourable friend. He is well aware of the concerns that have been expressed by Motability and the suggestions made by it. We have considered this and as I have said we are still investigating alternative approaches. I should point out that the Government already support organisations such as Motability. My department's mobility advice and vehicle information service dealt with over 6,000 inquiries last year from disabled drivers and again this year we shall be running the Mobility Road Show. We also exempt disabled people from having to pay vehicle excise duty.

Lord Underhill

My Lords, are we to take it from the Minister that the Government support something along the lines of what my noble friend Lady Fisher advocated rather than having newspapers containing columns of advertisements placed by private enterprise for the sale of these number plates? Surely what my noble friend suggests is a far better idea.

Lord Brabazon of Tara

My Lords, as I have said, we are talking here of selling taxpayers' and Government assets and therefore we have to abide by the rules. The advertisements for number plate sales which one sees in the newspapers are not affected by the proposals at all.

Lord Bruce of Donington

My Lords, can the Minister inform the House whether there is a readily-available official publication on the Government's accounting rules? If there is not one already, and in view of the noble Lord's reference to the rules, will he ensure that such rules are speedily prepared and made available to the public because at the moment they tend to be rather a mystery?

Lord Brabazon of Tara

My Lords, that is a very different question from the one on the Order Paper, which is about our proposals for selling cherished number plates. I am sure that the noble Lord is well aware of the rules which concern government accounting.

Lord Campbell of Alloway

My Lords, is the Minister aware of any feasible definition of the phrase "cherished number plate"?

Lord Brabazon of Tara

My Lords, that is very easy to define. It is a number plate that is cherished by somebody and for which somebody is prepared to pay a price.