§ Mr. Giles Shawasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list in the Official Report the statutes which set out defences to charges under Section 8(1) of the Vehicles (Excise) Act 1971, since Section 8(2), which provides such defences, is not yet in force.
§ Mr. Giles Shawasked the Secretary of State for the Environment when he will activate Section 8(2) of the Vehicles (Excise) Act 1971 in order that defences be made available in view of the delays experienced in issuing vehicle licences.
§ Mr. MarksThe long-standing extra-statutory 14 days of grace to which I referred in reply to a Question from the hon. Member on Monday 2nd February —[Vol. 904, c.414]—provides complete immunity for people whose licences are delayed. Section 8(2), which is less "generous" than the period of grace, can only reasonably be activated as part of a package including "date to date" licensing, for which prior computerisation is virtually essential. The transfer from a manual local authority based system based on the Driver and Vehicle ing to the centralised and computerised system based on the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre at Swansea should be complete by about the end of 1977.