Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-01-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency received from charges for accessing records in each year from 2009-10 to 2014-15; and how many such requests were processed in each such year.

Andrew Jones

The total income received by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) from charges for requests for vehicle and driver information in each year from 2009/10 to 2014/15 is shown below:

The table below shows the number of chargeable requests made to the DVLA for vehicle and driver information in each year from 2009/10 to 2014/15:

It is important to note that although the DVLA is permitted to charge a fee for the release of information, it is not permitted to profit from it. Fees are set to recover the related administrative costs for the different types of requests for information and the fee levels are regularly reviewed as the cost base changes over time. This means that it is the applicant and not the taxpayer who funds this activity.

There are a range of organisations outside of Government that legitimately request data from the DVLA. These range from insurance companies and finance companies to toll chargers. The DVLA also supply anonymised data to companies providing vehicle check services to improve road safety, consumer protection and deter vehicle crime.

The number of requests for data have increased during this period for a number of reasons including changes to car park management and the introduction of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 which prohibited wheelclamping without lawful authority. Employers also need to check employee driving entitlement.