§ Mr. WheelerTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many persons are employed at the driver and vehicle licensing centre and at what annual cost; how many requests are received per annum as to details of the registered number of a vehicle; and in what period of time the average response for this information is made.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThe driver and vehicle licensing directorate employs 5,413 staff. A total of 3,906 work at the centre. The remainder are employed in the network of vehicle registration offices located throughout Great Britain. This year's pay bill is expected to be £45.7 million.
In 1987 DVLC received 4.7 million inquiries of the vehicle record. Urgent telephone inquiries from the police and most other telephone inquiries were dealt with immediately; the average response time for written inquiries was about six days, and three to four days for inquiries received by magnetic tape.