Craig Mackinlay – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Mackinlay on 2015-11-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many foreign vehicles that had overstayed the permitted six months in the UK were identified as a result of the information sharing trial between the police service and HM Revenue and Customs that ran from November 2014 to February 2015; how many such vehicles were impounded; how much was raised in fines in that trial; and what plans his Department has to introduce such a scheme permanently.

Andrew Jones

During the trial the police used a combination of information provided by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and on-road interviews to establish whether a vehicle had overstayed the six-month exemption and/or if the vehicle keeper was a resident in the UK.

Of the 703 vehicles impounded during the trial, 162 were included in the HMRC’s data set.

The table below shows the amounts awarded by the courts following successful prosecutions:

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) also received £20,751 from out of court settlement payments.

The trial was carried out from within existing resources.

A full analysis of the trial is underway and will inform the way forward. Police forces which are authorised by the DVLA to seize unlicensed vehicles continue to target non-compliant foreign registered vehicles.