Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what threshold applies before police can conduct facial recognition searches against (1) the passport database, (2) the EU Settled Status database, or (3) the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency database, in the course of their investigations.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Police forces can currently request facial recognition searches against the passport database on a limited basis in support of the most serious law enforcement investigations.

No facial recognition searches are currently carried out against the EU Settled Status and Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency databases in the course of police investigations to identify people suspected of offences.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether police forces can use facial recognition technology to search against photographs from (1) the passport database, (2) the EU Settled Status database, and (3) the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency database, to identify people suspected of offences.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Police forces can currently request facial recognition searches against the passport database on a limited basis in support of the most serious law enforcement investigations.

No facial recognition searches are currently carried out against the EU Settled Status and Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency databases in the course of police investigations to identify people suspected of offences.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has had discussions with EU officials on sharing vehicle keepers' details for the purpose of enforcing driving fines.

Answered by Trudy Harrison

Officials of the Department for Transport have had no such discussions on this issue with officials of the EU since the UK fully left the EU.

While the UK was a member of the EU, the UK electronically provided vehicle keeper data to EU Member States who enquired about vehicles who committed certain traffic offences. This was facilitated under the EU Cross-Border Enforcement Directive (CBE). The UK only used the outbound mechanism of CBE, meaning that we responded to enquiries from Member States, but we never sought to obtain the equivalent information from them about their nationals driving in the UK. Since leaving the EU, the UK is no longer obliged to provide vehicle keeper data to requesting EU Member States through this mechanism.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 29 November 2021 to Question 80915 on Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency: Databases, how many drivers have been fined for not providing their correct address to the DVLA in each year since 2015.

Answered by Trudy Harrison

The data requested is not available. The police are responsible for prosecuting this offence and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is not routinely notified of convictions as the offence does not attract penalty points on a driving licence.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the accuracy of driver's address records held by the DVLA.

Answered by Trudy Harrison

All drivers have a legal responsibility to ensure that the address on their driving licence is correct. Not doing so is an offence which can be subject to a fine of up to £1000. It is important that drivers ensure that the address held on the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s record is accurate so that they can receive important information, for example reminders when their licence is due for renewal. The DVLA relies on the public to provide accurate information and only becomes aware that an address on its records is inaccurate when it is notified of such.

To help ensure records are accurate, the DVLA maintains a database of suspect addresses which is updated regularly, and places markers on individual licence records where there is information to indicate that the address held is incorrect. No further licences are issued until any issues have been investigated.