HL Deb 12 February 2004 vol 656 cc193-6WA
Earl Attlee

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is the approximate turnover of the Vehicle Registration Office at Honeypot Lane, Stanmore, in terms of vehicle excise licence receipts. [HL1217]

Lord Davies of Oldham

The average monthly vehicle licence receipts at the DVLA local office at Stanmore are £570,000. A further £200,000 is received monthly in respect of other business such as driving licence, cherished transfer and vehicle registration fees.

Earl Attlee

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is the target time for completion of a customer's business at the Vehicle Registration Office at Honeypot Lane, Stanmore. [HL1218]

Lord Davies of Oldham

Targets provide that applications for cherished transfers are completed within seven working days. The DVLA local office at Stanmore will, wherever practicably possible, try to process cherished transfer applications by way of an "over the counter" service while the customer waits.

Target times for applications to import a vehicle into this country vary from 48-hour turnround for new vehicles to 72-hour turnround for second-hand vehicles. Import applications can only meet these target times if the vehicle does not need to be inspected and provided that all of the related documentation is complete and bona fide.

All other transactions are completed at the counter or are forwarded to the DVLA main office at Swansea to be processed in line with published standards.

Earl Attlee

asked Her Majesty's Government:

How many customer service points are available at the Vehicle Registration Office at Honeypot Lane, Stanmore; and for how many hours a day they are open. [HL1219]

Lord Davies of Oldham

There are eight customer service points at the DVLA local office at Stanmore. Seven of these are normally open for processing customer applications. The eighth is used to deal with general inquiries and to check applications for completeness and so avoid customers waiting unnecessarily with applications that cannot be processed.

The office is open for eight hours every weekday. In April 2003 the agency increased the opening hours to the public from 09.30 to 16.00 (15.30 on Fridays) to 09.00 to 17.00 (Monday to Friday). Every effort is made to ensure that all counters at Stanmore are open every day unless customer demand does not warrant it.

Earl Attlee

asked Her Majesty's Government:

For the last convenient week for which figures are available, what is the average number of customers transacting business at the Vehicle Registration Office at Honeypot Lane, Stanmore. [HL1220]

Lord Davies of Oldham

In the week commencing 2 February 2004, 1,592 customers transacted business at the DVLA local office in Stanmore, an average of 318 per day or 40 per hour. In addition, an unknown number of customers had miscellaneous queries and inquiries dealt with outside our queue management system.

Earl Attlee

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether the Vehicle Registration Office at Honeypot Lane, Stanmore, accepts debit and credit cards; and, if not, why not. [HL1221]

Lord Davies of Oldham

DVLA would very much like to be able to offer customers the ability to pay vehicle excise duty by debit or credit card at local offices like Stanmore.

The agency is currently piloting a scheme to accept debit card payments for vehicle excise duty. If it is successful it will be introduced across the DVLA local office network including Stanmore.

DVLA cannot absorb the commission charges levied by credit card companies but is currently investigating options for the recovery of these costs.