§ Mr. Brothertonasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) why applicants for renewed driving licences are not required to return the plastic covers;
(2) how many plastic driving licence covers his Department issues in a full year;
(3) how many driving licences his Department issued in the latest year for which figures are available; and, or this number, how many were new licences and how many were renewals;
(4) what is the cost of producing plastic driving licence covers in the latest year for which figures are available.
§ Mr. HoramI have been asked to reply.
Licences returned in covers would increase handling costs; the machines which issue licences cannot deal with covers that have been folded or damaged. On average, about 12 million covers are issued annually. The actual number of licences issued in the year ended 31st October 1977 was 11,330,498: 1,088,049 were first provisional—new—licences; 9,726,396 were renewals; the remaining 516,053 were replacement, duplicate and exchange licences. Licence covers cost 1.2p each. But, as I have previously explained, this is not a charge on public funds; the licence fee covers this cost.