§ Mr. Andrew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list by office the number of excise reports which have been received by each vehicle registration office(a) that are discarded due to lack of staff resources, (b) that are closed because the alleged offender cannot be traced and (c) that will not be investigated.
§ Mr. Robert Key[holding answer 9 February 1994]: Column A—Insufficient resource
During the past four years there has been an appreciable increase in the number of excise offence reports—EORs—received from the police. Since 1991–92 EORs have been rising at the rate of between 13 per cent. and 17 per cent. per annum.
million 1990–91 1.3 1991–92 1.5 1992–93 1.7 11993–94 2.0 1Forecast. The introduction of new technology and improved working practices enabled the local office network to cope with the increase initially. However, by the end of 1992–93 the gain from those improvements had largely been exhausted. 1993–94 has seen further increases in the number of EORs, brought about chiefly by the introduction of the windscreen warning notices—WWN—scheme. This has put a number of local offices under severe pressure with the result that some EORs were being discarded because there were insufficient resources to deal with them. As an immediate solution, revised guidelines were issued to the network in July 1993. This resulted in cases being dealt with in order of priority with serious cases involving other traffic offence, the better quality named reports, persistent offenders and high value cases involving HGVs being processed first.
The agency has also, as a short-term measure, succeeded in getting an additional £120,000 running costs during the current financial year. This has been given to those local offices where the problem of receipts is most acute to pay for the recruitment of casual staff and/or overtime working. The agency will consider longer term measures when the local office strategic review is completed this spring.
Column B and C cases not pursued
Column B refers to the number of cases in which the alleged offender cannot be traced and which results in the abandonment of the case.
The figures listed in column C are cases where initial inquiries indicate that there is little or no likelihood of a successful conclusion. The decision is then taken not to proceed with detailed investigation. These include cases 469W where discrepancies exist between the details on the vehicle record and the excise offence report or where information contained on a microfilmed copy of an application is illegible. While a case is already being dealt with VROs may choose not to action further EORs for the same vehicle. VRO managers take cost-effectiveness into account in deciding whether or not to pursue a case. An example is where the current keeper relicenses the vehicle immediately on being reported and where the outstanding back-duty is so small that the cost of pursuit would outweigh the amount of recoverable revenue. A further example is where a new keeper relicenses within five days of acquiring the vehicle.
470W
April 1993 to January 1994 (a) (b) (c) VRO Excise offence report receipts Insufficient staff resource A/O1 not traced Cases not pursued Manchester 57,625 1,938 1,298 2,401 Sheffield 34,292 15 2,130 2,091 Liverpool 54,723 9 1,631 6,178 Bangor 8,423 0 423 73 Chester 13,157 0 525 0 Huddersfield 13,318 1 2,845 622 Leeds 39,543 772 3,131 2,847 Preston 30,428 7 544 3,883 Hull 12,577 0 1,660 464 Aberdeen 5,977 0 511 72 Inverness 2,822 0 280 0 Dundee 11,693 0 1,767 1,159 Middlesbrough 16,655 0 2,841 2,294 Newcastle 56,918 0 9,383 3,170 Carlisle 7,219 1 1,249 801 Edinburgh 24,339 0 1,158 558 Glasgow 37,175 0 2,531 1,030 Luton 50,805 1,120 556 6,349 Ipswich 18,670 1 1,027 1,413 Chelmsford 52,614 1,166 2,759 2,431 Norwich 35,121 666 1,382 3,058 Haverfordwest 5,808 0 304 45 Cardiff 41,292 14 994 1,055 Swansea 13,274 2 1,143 214 Taunton 9,997 817 647 1,305 Truro 11,479 0 425 1,036 Gloucester 17,477 118 1,416 76 Exeter 29,204 38 2,586 4,440 Bristol 32,845 0 3,910 1,662 Worcester 15,081 0 1,341 152 Swindon 13,116 15 1,662 479 Reading 19,271 0 3,610 3,259 Portsmouth 37,788 70 1,830 5,472 Oxford 17,131 0 2,720 1,581 Brighton 42,861 162 1,574 1,251 Maidstone 56,687 0 2,552 2,123 Guildford 22,735 0 1,001 1,849 Bournemouth 17,013 0 1,478 1,533 Stoke 16,275 0 1,525 2,245 Leicester 25,429 1 446 4,580 Lincoln 13,650 274 1,112 157 Nottingham 33,590 0 5,251 1,722 Peterborough 13,427 0 1,440 610 Northants 21,681 2 711 419 Birmingham 55,787 2 10,251 2,527 Coventry 22,402 11 2,319 2,738 Dudley 9,883 30 951 108 Shrewsbury 5,471 0 758 96 LEO2 379,443 8 20,069 13,642 1Alleged Offender. 2London Enforcement Office.