Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure motorists are aware of changes to the requirements to display a tax disc in a vehicle from 1 October 2014.

Customer insight research carried out last month showed that 87% were aware that the tax disc was to be abolished on 1 October.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) issued various communications on this issue. These included updates on GOV.UK, Twitter and Facebook. The DVLA engaged with over 6000 stakeholders and commercial customers. Since 5 September 2014 all vehicle tax renewal reminders issued explain the changes. These will continue to be issued every month to individual customers at the time at which it is most relevant.

There has been widespread national and regional print and media coverage in the build up to raise awareness of abolition before 1 October. The DVLA’s campaign was based on a low cost approach in order to protect the public purse. The DVLA produced in-house videos at no cost, which have been viewed around 80,000 times on its YouTube channel.