Andrew Stephenson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2014-06-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department has taken to improve the reliability of tracking methodologies for foreign (a) registered and (b) unregistered vehicles in the UK.

Stephen Hammond

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) receives information on foreign registered vehicles from the police and other enforcement agencies, as well as from members of the public. Other ways of obtaining this information are currently being explored.

The DVLA has been working with the police to pilot a new enforcement process. This involves the DVLA providing the police forces with registration numbers of foreign registered vehicles which may have overstayed the six- month exemption period and where the keepers have not complied with UK requirements. This information enables the four police forces involved to seize and impound vehicles that have overstayed, where appropriate. If the pilot is successful, the DVLA will explore the potential for extending it to more police forces.

The DVLA is also working with other government agencies to establish what other data might be used to track and identify over staying foreign registered vehicles.