§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Transport (1) whether he has yet received the communication sent by the hon. Member for Newham, North-West of 6th April making complaints of the inefficiency of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre, Swansea; whether he will publish this letter together with his reply; and when he expects to send the reply;
(2) in view of the fact that the officials at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre, Swansea, have wrongly described a 1966 Morris Minor as an Allegro 1500, which has caused annoyance and costs to the owner, Mr. Ray Neall, what action he has taken, or intends taking, against those responsible for these continuing failures; and what compensation he intends paying to Mr. Neall;
(3) whether he is aware that a further instance of maladministration on the part of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre, Swansea, has been recorded in a case where Mr. P. L. J. Mahiques had to wait for an extremely long time for his documents and that his car was wrongly classified as a lorry and wrongly classified as regards the cylinder capacity, the colour and registration number; what action has been or will be taken against those responsible; and how many mistakes have been made since January 1978;
(4) whether he is aware that Mr. Henry Gadsky, of Warwickshire, applied to Swansea for registration documents for the registration of his car but that, after seven months, dozens of letters and telephone calls he was still waiting until he sent a rudely addressed letter and has now received three seperate registration documents in three separate letters, by three consecutive posts; what was the reason for this maladministration; and what were the costs involved.
§ Mr. William RodgersI have written to my hon. Friend, and I have no objection to his publishing my letter. As for the three particular cases to which my hon. Friend refers, these have all been the subject of newspaper reports. I assume that the individuals concerned will get in 117W touch with me through their own Members of Parliament if they have a continuing grievance. I regret any mistakes that have been made at the centre. There has been a substantial improvement in its performance, and I am sure that this will continue.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Transport whether he will change the decision taken by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre at Swansea that, if vehicle documents held by local offices show that a vehicle has not been taxed for a period of 12 months, the files for that vehicle should be destroyed, which is creating problems for the police in addition to owners of vehicles who keep their cars for a year inside a garage.
§ Mr. HoramNo, the files have already been destroyed: in my answer of 14th March 1978 to the hon. Member for Bury St. Edmunds (Mr. Griffiths)—[Vol. 946, c.183]—I gave details of the type and number of vehicle records involved and explained that the decision was taken after consultation with the Home Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers. However, I should stress that arrangements already exist for conversion of these vehicles to the centralised system through local vehicle licensing offices; and, where the old-style "log book" can be produced, no special problems should occur in relicensing.