Clause 20 - Cancellation of registration by the Secretary of State
Vehicles (Crime) Bill
6:00 pm
Mr David Chidgey (Eastleigh, Liberal Democrat)
Members of the Committee may have noticed that I tabled amendments that were not selected, calling for the clause and the following relevant clauses to be deleted. I did so because I felt that we needed an explanation of why it should be necessary for a company trading in the supply of plates to be deregistered if it ceases to trade. I am at a loss to understand how this exercise is different from any other commercial enterprise, as we have discussed at some length. The question of the length of time after which it is deemed that a company or organisation has ceased trading is one that has also exercised me. I agree with the hon. Member for Buckingham when he asks on what basis we decide on 28 days: that it is just plucked out of the air and all the problems arise from the shortness of that period.
I have received advice from the European branch of the International Association of Auto Theft Investigators, which has looked at this issue in some detail and has advised the Government and Committees on how this legislation should proceed. One of its members has suggested, for example, that a period of six months would be more appropriate for determining whether a supplier has ceased to trade.
The key issue is that there must be innumerable small companies that trade sporadically in the supply of registration plates. We have already discussed the characteristics of rural communities and small garages. It is quite likely that, in many cases, the plates are supplied at irregular intervals. It does not seem reasonable to me that if a garage happens not to sell a plate for 28 days it should be deregistered. That does not seem to be in the spirit of what we are trying to achieve. I would suggest to the Minister, therefore, that due consideration be given to the characteristics of the trade when trying to determine the period after which a trader is deemed to have ceased to trade and his registration should be cancelled.
Perhaps the most important point is to determine what are we trying to achieve by this registration and deregistration process. Surely the key issue is the audit trail by which the authorities can check that the registration plates are being legally supplied and that they are not being used to allow stolen vehicles to go back into the motor fleet. In that case, surely the most important thing is not to specify a short period after which someone is deemed to have ceased trading but to require that the records be made available to the DVLA after trading has ceased. The police and other authorities would then continue to have access to records of transactions and could determine whether illegal and criminal activities had taken place.
I may have missed it in the Bill, but I do not see anything there to tell me that that audit trail linking registration plates to vehicle transactions is there, is robust and is effective. It is vital to have a robust audit trail to reduce vehicle crime.