§ Lord Hardy of Wathasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many motor vehicles, recovered by the police after being stolen or abandoned or examined by the police after being dumped, were found to have no known owner or to have no current vehicle excise licence during the last three years: and whether steps are being taken to ensure that the record of ownership or the whereabouts of motor vehicles are kept up-to-date. [HL202]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Lord Whitty)Neither the police nor the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) hold information on the volume of abandoned or recovered vehicles which were unlicensed or found to be not currently registered.
DVLA holds a record of vehicle keepers. The agency, in conjunction with the police, has introduced a number of measures designed to ensure that vehicle records are accurate and kept up to date. These include a change to the registration system to require the disposer of a vehicle to notify details of the acquirer, 42WA the requirement for vehicle keepers to tell DVLA when their vehicle is taken off the road and a scheme which enables the police to notify the agency of registration and VED offences simultaneously. In addition, DVLA, in close liaison with the police forces, conducts periodic vehicle excise duty enforcement campaigns which result in the updating of the vehicle record.
The Vehicle Crime Reduction Action Team's five-year strategy document, Tackling Vehicle Crime, recommends a number of further measures intended to improve record accuracy.