§ Mr. William RossTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many persons in Northern Ireland hold a driving licence; what percentage this represents of all persons of the age of 17 years or over, broken down into those age bands used by the licensing authority. [38085]
§ Mr. Paul MurphyResponsibility for the subject in question has been delegated to Driver and Vehicle Licensing of Northern Ireland, under its chief executive, Mr. Brendan Magee. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Brendan Magee to Mr. William Ross, dated 6 April 1998:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question requesting information on the number of people in Northern Ireland holding driving licences.As at 3 April 1998 there were 1,082,936 licence holders on DVLNI's Driver Licensing computer system. This figure included provisional and full licences, individuals who have moved from Northern Ireland but where we have not been notified of the move, and some deceased where we have not been informed of their death.The figure of 1,082,936 represents 88.7% of the population of Northern Ireland who are over 17 years of age.The age bands used by DVLNI are above and below age 70. There are 987,466 licence holders aged below 70 and 95,470 above 70 years of age.