§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will quantify the number of disclosures of personal data that have taken place in the last year from driver and vehicle licensing agency records to those people who show reasonable cause as outlined in section 15(1) of the Road Vehicle (Registration and Licencing) Regulations 1971; whether he will describe the procedures that he adopts to satisfy himself of the reasonableness of that cause; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. ChopeDuring the 12 months ended March 1991 the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has answered 303,618 reasonable cause inquiries about names and addresses of current or past vehicle keepers recorded at DVLA.
"Reasonable cause" is not defined in law. For the purposes of the 1971 regulations the DVLA generally interprets this to mean an inquiry about a vehicle which has been involved in an incident such as an accident or an offence under the road traffic law and the information is essential to resolving the matter. Requests are carefully vetted to ensure a balance is maintained between releasing 308W information where it is justified and protecting the privacy of individual motorists as required under the principles of the Data Protection Act 1984.