DVLA: A licence to bill

However, Edmund King, President of the Automobile Association is more outspoken. He said:

The entire framework of how we police this area needs to be looked at again.

Some of those providing parking enforcement facilities used to be wheelclampers on private land. When the Government tightened up on their activities by carrying out criminal checks, many set up businesses that relied on cameras and official looking documentation to remove money from anyone who failed to stick to the strict letter of parking regulations. There are no checks on these operators and motorists have no right of appeal.

King said motorists were often left confused over the status of the notices they get from car park operators.

Many of the "fines" that they issue are designed to look like fixed penalty notices. PCN (NW) are a typical example.

Individuals caught out in this way must take the time and expense of going to court to argue their innocence. Many pay up simply to put an end to the stress – not to mention the risk of falling foul of the law on a simple technicality.

Quite apart from the damage to individuals, over-tough parking restrictions can damage town centres, pushing trade to the outskirts, and putting off shoppers.

It may be that the time has come to say that the data should no longer be available.

The fear that this approach to parking regulation can attract criminals and less scrupulous operators is not new.

A new twist was added to operators playing fast and loose with our driver database by the revelation that although the DVLA is forbidden from giving details of UK drivers to foreign enforcement agencies, some European police authorities have found a simple way round this rule. They pay a UK operator to put in a request for the information to the DVLA. The UK operator then forwards details of the offence to the named individual and, if he decides to pay up, collects a commission from the issuing authority.

In theory, at least, no DVLA-derived data is sent abroad, and the DVLA is happy with this arrangement because it is based on "reasonable cause". An interesting twist to this practice is that anyone intending not to pay a foreign fine should ignore such letters entirely: Their DVLA data cannot legally be sent abroad, but the details of any communication with the UK operator – even a call to claim innocence – almost certainly can.

In response to complaints, the Department for Transport tightened up rules for access back in 2006, and claims that complaints have since fallen.

However, given our increasing wariness of data being released without our express consent – it seems possible that as a nation we are no longer quite so happy with this wholesale distribution of our motoring data. ®