§ Mr. John H. Osbornasked the Minister of Transport what procedure is used to prevent motoring offenders who have had their driving licences removed by the courts from obtaining fresh provisional licences, then retaking their driving test and thereby continuing to drive with clean licences.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeApplications for first provisional driving licences are checked by computer programme against the DVLC's record of disqualified drivers. If personal details match or are similar to those of a disqualified driver, the application is rejected by the computer for clerical investigation and reference to the police if necessary. Similar checks are made before licences are renewed or replaced. In the past 12 months 72 apparently fraudulent applications for first provisional licences have been detected and referred to the police for possible prosecution. The police have just introduced further improvements in their own records of disqualified drivers which will be another aid in detecting fraud.