HC Deb 28 July 2000 vol 354 cc925-6W
Mrs. Browning

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to his answer of 18 July 2000,Official Report, column 137W, on car registrations, if he will publish the number of new registration using form V55/5 at the DVLA for each month from January 1999 to June 2000 for (a) new cars and (b) cars first registered and used outside the UK. [133498]

Mr. Hill

Figures for new and used cars registered on form V55/5 from January 1999 cannot be produced because of the disproportionate cost of extracting the information. However, DVLA have recently undertaken an exercise on a sample of V55/5 forms. This exercise in February and March 2000 covered only imported cars. The exercise showed 45 per cent. of imported cars were new and 55 per cent. were first registered and used outside Great Britain.

Mr. Love

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what was the average time taken to inform(a) the police and (b) local authorities regarding ownership of vehicles for which only the registration mark was traced, in each of the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement. [133235]

Mr. Hill

The statistics requested are not available.

However, I can confirm that the police have immediate access to information on vehicle keepers through the Police National Computer. Local authorities make application for this information direct to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.

The Agency aims to deal with manual inquiries from local authorities within eight to 10 working days and the majority are dealt with within this timescale. A small percentage of requests take slightly longer to answer because detailed investigation involving the retrieval of microfilmed documents is necessary. In addition to the manual inquiry service, DVLA has long-standing magnetic tape interchange arrangements with some local authorities that enable them to receive information within three working days. Since 1997, the Agency has encouraged customers to exchange data electronically, making them available overnight. Currently, 134 local authorities use the electronic service.