§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Minister of Transport whether she is aware that, excluding the Greater London area whose council reported a figure of 95,000 apparent unlicensed vehicles in the year ended 31st March, 1966, there were in the calendar year ended 31st December, 1965, 117,750 reports nationally of actual unlicensed vehicles and that only 62,500 of these were prosecuted; and what was the reason for this discrepancy.
§ Mr. SwinglerIn addition to the 62,500 offenders who were prosecuted, 38,000 paid mitigated penalties and 9,000 were cautioned. On 31st December, 1965, 3,000 cases were still under investigation; in 5,000 cases it had been decided, for various reasons, not to proceed further.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Minister of Transport why in view of the fact that for the 12 months ended 31st March, 1966, there were 95,000 reports of apparent unlicensed vehicles on the roads in the Greater London area only 4,000 of these had been prosecuted by 8th June, 1966; and what action she proposes to take to speed up these prosecutions.
§ Mr. SwinglerAs stated in the OFFICIAL REPORT of 27th May, of the 95,000 reports of apparent unlicensed use of motor vehicles in the Greater London area received during the 12 months ended 31st March, 1966, 36,000 were still under investigation at the end of the period. The remainder were dealt with as follows: in 11,500 cases mitigated penalties were imposed; in 12,000 cases cautions were issued; in 7,000 cases prosecutions were authorised and 28,500 cases were not proceeded with for various reasons. Of the 7,000 prosecution cases, 4,000 had been dealt with by the courts by the end of March and my right hon. Friend understands that hearings of the other 3,000 are likely to be completed by the end of June.
Each investigation usually takes a long time and does not always lead to prosecution. Prosecutions are expected in many of the 36,000 cases under investigation on 31st March.