§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to his answer of 22 March,Official Report, column 595, if he will describe the circumstances in which he allows the police access to the vehicle registration numbers in his possession in order to trace the owner of a particular vehicle; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyRegulation 15 of the Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) Regulations 1971 requires the Secretary of State to supply to the police, free of charge, such particulars as may be requested of any vehicle contained in the DV LC vehicle register. In practice the police national computer contains a register of vehicles and keepers including much of the information on the DVLC record, from which it is updated on a daily basis. Other vehicles information available to DVLC is provided to the police on request.
Regulation 15, which permits the release of this information takes precedence over the Data Protection Act 1984 provisions. Section 34(1) of that Act exempts the data held by this Department which is required to be made available by other enactments. Notwithstanding this exemption the DVLC has registered its computer data under the the Data Protection Act 1984 and adheres closely to the data protection principles.
§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of Transport, pursuant to his answer of 22 March,Official Report, column 595, if he will describe the circumstances in which the police or security services could have access to the vehicle registration numbers collected by Autoguide or similar traffic systems; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThe operation of a driver information system which was licensed under the Road Traffic (Driver Licensing and Information Systems) Bill would have to comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1984. Sections 27 and 28 of the Act are concerned with national security and with crime and taxation.