Abandoned Vehicles (Hansard, 31 October 2002)

§ Lord Naseby
asked Her Majesty's Government:
What steps they are taking to prevent an increase in the number of abandoned cars, particularly arising from the new laws in 2004 which will make individual motorists responsible for the cost of decontamination.

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty)
My Lords, abandoned vehicles are an increasing problem for local authorities and we are determined to take action to help them to tackle it. The End of Life Vehicles Directive may lead to a further increase in numbers because the increased cost of vehicle treatment will have to be borne by the previous owner until 2007 after which producers will pick up the cost.
At present, many keepers of abandoned vehicles are not properly registered and can evade their responsibilities. The Government intend to introduce a system of continuous registration.

§ Lord Naseby
My Lords, it is reassuring to note that the Government are aware of the problem. I suspect that the whole nation is aware of it because there are hundreds of thousands of vehicles on the sides of roads. Public-spirited people telephone the police, who attach a notice to a vehicle saying "police aware". But that is a signal to local yobs to smash the vehicle, after which their fellow travellers wishing to show a little more spirit burn it. The vehicle then sits there for another couple of weeks until someone decides to remove it.
Do the Government not recognise that that is all set against the incentive payment of £5 to £10 which people presently receive for an unwanted vehicle? Do they also recognise that thanks to their proposals as they now stand, and unless there is a change, we will move from that situation in which a person can earn a fiver to one in which he will have to accept a charge of £60? Do they not recognise that if we are to have joined-up government, this is an urgent matter? If not, we shall have hundreds of thousands of vehicles littering our highways.

§ Lord Whitty
My Lords, it is indeed an increasing problem which hitherto has been caused by the collapse of scrap metal prices with the result the noble Lord mentioned. In some cases, one has to pay the scrap metal merchant to take away or to treat the vehicles. The problem could be aggravated by the End of Life Vehicles Directive.
However, we have given local authorities more powers. There used to be a restriction on how long they had to leave the vehicles but we have changed that so that they can now issue a 24-hour notice. When that has expired the vehicles can be removed. We have also reduced the vehicles-of-value written notice from 21 days to seven days. In addition, we have conducted a 283 number of blitz campaigns involving all the authorities. Previously, there was some obscurity as to which was the lead authority. Action is being taken and many local authorities have been successful in the past year or so.

§ Lord Lea of Crondall
My Lords, will my noble friend give the House more information about the results of the blitz campaigns, having regard to the fact that it is a growing problem? Furthermore, does the blitz experience throw any light on the fact that there seems to be more use of the public highway by private motorists and commercial vehicle operators putting their vehicles on sale?

§ Lord Whitty
My Lords, my noble friend's last point involves the complex issue of whether a vehicle is abandoned or not. If it is taxed and labelled for sale, the duty is to chase the owner. If the owner is registered, the vehicle is not therefore abandoned. However, the blitz campaigns that we have undertaken in a number of London boroughs and in Kent—a new one is about to start in Hastings and Southend-on-Sea—have to date resulted in more than 6,000 abandoned unlicensed vehicles being targeted; 4,000 have been crushed; and 15,000 motorists have been obliged to relicense their vehicles, which has brought £2.3 million in additional revenue. As a result, the DVLA register is more up to date. Those blitz campaigns have therefore already had some results and further campaigns are planned.

§ Lord Greaves
My Lords, it is reported that last year some 350,000 end-of-life vehicles—or old bangers—were abandoned and it is estimated that the cost to local authorities of removing them might be as high as £300 per vehicle in administration, taking away and so forth. Will the Minister tell the House whether, if the trend continues, the result of the directive and the rules introduced by the Government will mean that more such vehicles will be abandoned; perhaps several million over the next five years? What funds as well as powers will be provided to local authorities to deal with those additional costs, which could be as high as £500 million?

§ Lord Whitty
My Lords, part of the previous cost to local authorities has been the requirement to store vehicles when they are deemed to be of value but we have significantly reduced that storage time. It is now 14 days for those of value and seven days for the wrecks and therefore the cost of storage no longer falls on local authorities. Local authorities are resourced to deal with that. It is partly the responsibility of the local authorities, partly that of the police and partly that of the DVLA, so the key thing is that those authorities work together.

§ Lord Crickhowell
My Lords, I fear that the Minister may say that this is a problem for the Welsh Assembly, but I ask the question because the problem extends far beyond Wales. Will he extend his guidance to local authorities to give clear guidance to national parks 284 authorities? It is the practice near me in Wales for a large number of farmers to go in for the business of collecting old vehicles—or at least accumulating them near their farms. I could draw the noble Lord's attention to sites where as many as 20 or 30 vehicles are stored in farmland in the heart of national parks. This is not just a problem for the roadside, but for the countryside as well. I wish that the local authorities and the national parks authorities would take firmer action than they seem inclined to.

§ Lord Whitty
My Lords, as the noble Lord, Lord Crickhowell, indicated, I cannot give instructions to the national parks in Wales, but, clearly, there is a separate problem. We are talking about on-road abandoned wrecks, but in some parts of the country there is a separate problem of off-road land —previously agricultural land—being used as dumping sites. The local authorities have powers to deal with that and it is primarily their responsibility, although the national parks also have a responsibility in that regard.

§ Lord Hardy of Wath
My Lords, is the Minister aware that the black economy appears to be developing prosperously in this area? For a down payment of £ 10 a car can be readily stolen and dumped or burnt on land which may be attractive? That presents serious problems to the people who own the land in question.

§ Lord Whitty
My Lords, my noble friend clearly knows more about the black market than I do. Nevertheless, it is a growing problem and one of the difficulties of discovering the previous owner stems from that illegal trade in cars. If we are able to remove the cars more rapidly, the opportunity for such trade is reduced.

§ Lord Glentoran
My Lords, does the Minister agree that a considerable stream of directives comes out of Europe and that this is not the first time he and I have debated them at the Dispatch Box? We have had fridge mountains and we have another Question on the matter today. Does he further agree that the fact that such Questions are asked continually indicates that the country is not confident that the Government are managing the process? What are they doing to manage the output of such directives?

§ Lord Whitty
My Lords, the development of environmental directives from Europe clearly has a good base. In this case it is to limit the amount of potentially dangerous material and to ensure that producers ultimately take liability for what they produce. The same lies behind the directive on fridges. However, in that case, we did not have the facilities to dispose of them because there was a lack of clarity in the EU directive.
Some of the directives were signed some time ago, but our approach is that henceforth they must engage in a full regulatory impact assessment. That will require the European Commission and ourselves to see 285 how practically we can deal with a directive which may be good for environmental purposes but whose practicalities need to be sorted out before we reach the date of implementation.