Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps she has taken to (a) prevent vehicle number plate cloning and (b) support victims.

The cloning and use of false number plates is a serious issue and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is working with the police and others to improve the identification and enforcement of number plate crime.

The law requires anyone who supplies number plates for road use in the UK to be registered with DVLA and for suppliers to carry out checks to ensure that number plates are only sold to those who are entitled to the registration number. Number plate suppliers must also keep records of the number plates they have supplied. Those found to have committed number plate offences can be prosecuted by the police.

To help victims of numberplate cloning, the DVLA can, on request, provide a replacement age related registration number.