§ Mr. Norman Fowlerasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he is satisfied with the workings of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre, Swansea; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MarksI am satisfied that everything possible is being done to enable the centre to deal effectively with the new878W driver and vehicle licensing work which is coming its way and with the task of converting local driver and vehicle licensing records to the new centralised system.
On the driver side, the centre has for several months now dealt with 98 per cent. of its transactions within 10 working days; and the remaining 2 per cent. includes the more difficult cases—for example, where medical investigations are necessary.
As regards vehicles, the centre's overall system is not as yet runing as smoothly as one would wish, but even so some 90 per cent. of all vehicle transactions are being dealt with within 10 working days. Determined efforts are now being made to improve performance on the vehicle side, which, like performance on the driver side before it, is bound to be affected by the teething troubles which seem inevitably—though only initially—to attend computerised operations of the size and complexity of the one at Swansea. This I regard as by no means unsatisfactory given the fact that the computerised driver and vehicle licensing system were devised from scratch and without the benefit of previous experience.
I have to remind the hon. Member of the debate on the Public Accounts Committee's Fourth Report for 1974–5, and of an earlier statement made in the course of the Consolidated Fund debate on 18th December 1975. I do not think I can usefully add to what was said by my right hon. and hon. Friends in those contexts and to replies to Questions by hon. Members in recent weeks—though I should perhaps emphasise that references to "the cost of Swansea" as £400 million are to the cost over 14 years of the old waning LTO system in addition to the new waxing centralised system which is running side by side with it while conversion is under way; that at the moment the cost of a driving licence is covered by the fee charged; and that vehicle excise duty is currently being collected at the rate of £773 million per annum.
I am glad to report that the centre is in good heart and will before long—and, I suspect, at less cost overall—be able to give the public a reasonable service and the police a service which is infinitely better than the old local authorities could have offered, had the old system been viable.