Road Safety Act 2006 (Consequential Amendments) Order 2015

Lord Rosser Excerpts

Tuesday 10th February 2015 Grand Committee

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Baroness Kramer) (LD)]

My Lords, I beg to move that the draft Road Safety Act (Consequential Amendments) Order, which was laid before the House on 16 January, be considered.

The driving licence paper counterpart is to be abolished from 8 June 2015. The primary legislative changes that provide for this were included in the Road Safety Act 2006, and will be brought into force on the same day as this order. This order amends several additional pieces of primary and secondary legislation, many of which were enacted since 2006, that include references to the paper counterpart.

Old-style paper licences are not being abolished and will remain valid documents. The driving licence paper counterpart has been issued since the photocard driving licence was introduced in 1998. The main function of the paper counterpart that is issued with the photocard licences has been to show provisional driving entitlement and penalty points or driving disqualifications. The counterpart was necessary because the EU driving licence directives, with which every member state must comply, do not allow provisional driving entitlement or endorsement details to be displayed on the photocard. This meant that introducing a counterpart was, at the time, the only way this information could be provided for individual drivers and for them to then share that information, if they needed to, with those who required it for driving entitlement validation or enforcement purposes.

The primary powers to abolish the paper counterpart were included in the Road Safety Act 2006. We intend to enact these provisions by commencement of Section 10 and Schedule 3 of the Act, which are to be brought into force on the same day as this order by commencement order.

The secure electronic inquiry services needed to share driver data to replace the counterpart were not available in 2006. Since then, there has been significant development of online services and this Government are committed to developing the wider use of digital services as a key element of providing improved customer services. The paper counterpart was identified as an area of unnecessary bureaucracy and burden. This Government have made a clear commitment to remove such unnecessary burden under the Red Tape Challenge initiative, and abolishing the counterpart will result in significant savings for motorists. The paper counterpart will be replaced with a digital service that will enable customers and stakeholders to access their driving licence details securely. This will be an online service, called Share Driving Licence, which will enable individual drivers to check their own information and share it, as they need to, with a third party who will be able to securely view the up-to-date driver record digitally and securely.

Protecting individual driver data is of paramount concern. The Share Driving Licence service enables customers to generate a one-time use authentication code which they can then share with a third party to enable them to access the relevant information held on the DVLA’s driver record. This online service ensures that control remains in the hands of customers, giving them the power to share or not share the information.

There will also be an assisted digital inquiry service for those who are unable or do not want to use the online service themselves. The assisted service will provide two options. A customer can telephone the DVLA’s contact centre, which will provide them with a one-time use access code that the customer can then share with a third party. Alternatively, businesses can call the DVLA’s driving licence checking service. This is a three-way conversation between the customer, the third party and the DVLA to verify information from the individual’s driver record. These services are in addition to the online inquiry service that the DVLA has already made available to motor insurance companies, called My Licence. This enables them to check the status of the driving licence, with the consent of the driver, when giving a quote and when a policy is renewed.

Pre-photocard paper driving licences are not being abolished and will remain valid documents showing the categories of vehicle an individual can drive. However, they will no longer be endorsed with new penalty point information. The digital driver record held by the DVLA will be the legal record of penalty point information. So drivers with old-style paper driving licences will also need to use the new inquiry services to access the most up-to-date information on penalty points and endorsements.

I recognise the need to minimise any confusion between the paper counterpart and the pre-photocard paper driving licence. This is one of the key messages that features prominently in the wide-ranging communications activities being carried out now and will continue to be developed as abolition draws nearer. The DVLA is working with customers and businesses to help individual drivers understand the change.

Around 90% of motorists do not have penalty points and rarely need their paper counterpart. If a driver loses it, they must obtain a replacement licence at a cost of £20. The requirement for drivers to hold a paper counterpart to their driving licence is no longer considered by motorists to be the most effective way of enabling people to demonstrate their up-to-date penalty point information. The current arrangements impose unnecessary costs on motorists and can perpetuate the use of inaccurate and out-of-date information.

Generally, abolishing the paper counterpart has been welcomed by businesses. However, there was some industry concern about the original planned date for abolition, which was 31 December 2014. Some organisations advised that they were not ready to operate without the counterpart. My department has listened to these concerns and has delayed abolishing the counterpart until 8 June 2015. This revised implementation date will allow businesses more time to work with the DVLA on introducing the changes and communicate the change to their customers.

This department has worked closely with enforcement partners, including the Ministry of Justice and the Scottish Court Service, to ensure that they are prepared for the change. The processing of road traffic offences will continue without any issues as fixed penalty offices and courts are prepared for when the paper counterpart is abolished. Abolishing the paper counterpart will save motorists around £17 million per year. The changes before your Lordships support the Government’s commitment to improving public services through increased digital delivery and will realise significant savings to motorists. I commend the order to the Committee.

[Lord Rosser (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for explaining the background to, and purpose of, this order. I hope that she feels on top of the detail of the order to a rather greater extent than I do.

Since their introduction in 1998, all drivers issued with a Great Britain photocard driving licence have also been issued with an A4 paper counterpart because under an EU directive provisional entitlement or endorsement details were not allowed to be displayed on the photocard, and there was a need to provide this information for those who might be required to give details of any current convictions, disqualifications and other penalties, or in the case of a driver with a substantive licence the need, if it arose, to verify an additional provisional driving entitlement.

In 2004, a public consultation indicated that more than 80% of those responding supported the paper counterpart being abolished, with the overall preference being that instead the information on the paper counterpart should be made obtainable by secure electronic links to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency database. However, as the Minister said, the Government at the time did not have the necessary electronic system in place to abolish the paper counterpart.

As I understand it, this order amends primary and secondary legislation in the light of the commencement of the parts of the Road Safety Act 2006 which provide for the abolition of the driving licence counterpart in Great Britain. These parts of the 2006 Act will be brought into force on the same day as this order by the Road Safety Act 2006 (Commencement No. 11 and Transitional Provisions) Order 2015.

Apart from the paper counterpart displaying details of a driver’s current convictions, disqualifications and penalties, it is also used by the freight industry to carry out safety checks of commercial vehicle drivers, by the rental and leasing industry to verify customer driving licence details for car hire, and for other employment and enforcement purposes.

We are not opposed to the order but I would like to raise a few points. If I raise points that are answered in the impact assessment, I offer my apologies in advance for not having read it as thoroughly as I should have done. Under the arrangements to be introduced in the light of the abolition of the driving counterpart, those entitled to will be able to check securely information held on the document via a new electronic inquiry database, including driving entitlements and endorsements. Drivers will also be able to print their information. Who or what will be held responsible for making sure that the information held on the inquiry database in respect of each individual is accurate? How will an individual know whether that information held about them is accurate, bearing in mind the potential consequences if it is wrong? Is it the case that an individual will be expected themselves to check the information on the database for accuracy, and will there be any redress if it is incorrect and the individual has been penalised in some way as a result? If an individual finds incorrect information about themselves on the database, will they have to use a premium rate telephone line to ring up and challenge the accuracy of the entry?

It is essential that the abolition of the paper counterpart is managed effectively—unlike the reorganisation and merger of agencies last year, which was not. Abolition will not be successful unless a replacement electronic service is effective, easy to use and up to date. How secure will the information on the database be? Are the Government satisfied that people’s personal information on the database cannot be hacked into by others who should not be able to see or have that information?

As the Minister has said, the move away from the paper counterpart was originally planned for the last day of last year, but will not now happen until June, with, as she has indicated, the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association and Freight Transport Association having called for an extension to ensure that the online alternative was fit for purpose. As I understand it, the BVRLA is still saying it is vital that the agencies are given an adequate budget to publicise and provide guidance around key events such as the recent abolition of the paper tax disc, which is another issue from the one that we are discussing, and the impending removal of the paper driving licence counterpart, which we are discussing. Have the Government responded to that call and, if so, in what way? I appreciate that in her introductory comments the Minister made reference to this, but if she could say a little more about what the Government are doing to respond to that call from the BVRLA, it would be helpful. Given the experience of the tax disc abolition, including the DVLA’s website crashing, what assurances can the Government give that the abolition of the driving licence paper counterpart will be properly managed, explained and communicated to the public and business?

On the potential costs and benefits, the impact assessment states that there could be additional costs for some businesses as checking driving details online could take longer and the cost of calls to the DVLA’s premium rate telephone lines to access the information will increase. If the information is in the impact assessment, I apologise for asking this but could the Minister indicate what these costs will amount to?

The documentation also indicates that a range of inquiry services will be established for accessing driving licence details online, including the use of a premium rate telephone number, which, once again, the Minister referred to in her introductory comments. The impact assessment refers on page 7 to the DVLA receiving 1,207,104 premium line calls last year. On page 12 that figure is repeated, but another figure is also given: namely, that 940,000 premium line telephone inquiries relate to the general public. Perhaps the Minister could say whether that figure of 940,000 is included in the higher 1,207,104 figure or is in addition to it.

I understand that as a response to serious concerns about the Government’s use of premium rate phone lines, the Cabinet Office issued guidance stating that the use of premium rate phone numbers is inappropriate. If that is the case and the Minister accepts that that is in the Cabinet Office guidelines, how does the use of a premium rate phone number in this instance fit in with those guidelines? What cheaper alternatives, such as the 03 range, were considered, and why were they rejected?

[Baroness Kramer]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for the issues raised. If I miss some of the questions, we will try to catch those up afterwards. I understand that for the ordinary motorist the number to call for the DVLA is a standard-rate number—an 0300 number—0300 790 6801. That may answer a number of the noble Lord’s concerns.

In terms of costs to businesses, we have acknowledged that this may add somewhat to the burden of the car rental industry. However, we can compare the advantages to the motorist. It seems that the benefit is significant. The noble Lord may know anecdotally from friends and family that trying to find the paper counterpart is one of the great annoyances as so many people manage to mislay or lose them, which creates problems in having to apply again, with all the costs and inconvenience involved. The benefits to the motorist are significant, which outweighs what I suspect will be rather minor additional burdens to the industry, outlined by the noble Lord. We appreciate that the industry will need to manage this process effectively.

The DVLA will use its many regular communications with the public through a whole variety of channels. It will send out information leaflets with all full drivers’ licences, which equates to 1 million drivers a month getting a leaflet to outline this. The DVLA is working with industry stakeholders, such as trade associations for the car hire companies and the motor industry, to make sure that they have up-to-date information that they can communicate to their members and the motoring public. A campaign page has been created on GOV.UK to provide the Government with general information and the DVLA will use all those forms of media, which I confess I do not look at much myself, but a large part of the world does, such as web chat, social media, information videos and blogs to maximise awareness. A substantial communications campaign sits behind this, but it is also true that when people call to make bookings with a car hire company, they are typically told what documents to bring with them. Therefore, that is an opportunity for the car hire company to make it clear that people need to come along with an access code.

Change is never without the occasional hiccup but there will certainly be a substantial communication process. Indeed, there probably will be additional calls. The DVLA is expecting calls from people who do not feel comfortable going online to obtain information. That, by the way, is a free service. The DVLA is staffing up to be able to respond appropriately to that additional level of demand.

The noble Lord, Lord Rosser, asked if the information was secure, as government is responsible for a great deal of data affecting the lives of many people. Therefore, the levels of security are always significant—no less so in this case than in any other. I can give the noble Lord the confidence that this will not be treated in a more casual way than important information that is held on individuals by government departments and agencies. In terms of the accuracy of the data, because an individual can go online and check for themselves, it gives them an opportunity to make sure that the data are accurate. They can also call the DVLA if they have some concern. In many ways this gives them an opportunity to be sure that they are up to date in the way that the paper counterpart, sitting in a back drawer and possibly long forgotten, does not.

[Lord Rosser]

We are not opposing the order, so I am not making this point on the basis that we are. I am not sure that I see a way around this, so in a sense I am asking the Minister to clarify that the onus is actually on the individual to check on a reasonably regular basis that the information held about them is accurate. For many individuals, the first indication they may have that something is wrong will be when they are denied something that they are seeking, or find out that something is on the record that should not be which has adverse consequences for them. It is only then that they will check on the database and find out that the information is wrong. I have no solution as to how you get around that, but that seems to be the situation.

[Baroness Kramer]

I point out to the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, that at present the DVLA accesses its information from the courts and fixed penalty services, so that will be exactly the same pathway, except that it will be available for an individual to check on a live basis—for example, if they have forgotten to send in their counterpart to get it endorsed. I think that there are probably potentially fewer potential trip-ups with the new system than under the old one.

I am trying to remember other questions that the noble Lord asked, but I think I have covered most of his concerns around this issue. As I say, we will look back through Hansard and if there are particular issues that I have not covered in full, we will be glad to follow them up in writing. If he is satisfied with that response, I hope that he will feel able to support this order.