Clause 20 - Cancellation of registration by the Secretary of State
Vehicles (Crime) Bill
6:15 pm
Mr Keith Hill (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions; Streatham, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman asks a very good question. Let me be entirely candid: I am not sure that I can give a very good answer. It appears that an assessment may be made by a variety of means of whether an institution is trading.
The issue is not the conveying of the information to relevant bodies once the supplier has ceased trading. That can be done simply through the provisions of the Bill, by using the internet and tracing the application to the DVLA, which is the registration authority.
The hon. Gentleman asked an interesting question about how it will be known that the supplier has ceased trading. I am delighted to say that inspiration has winged its way to me. It will be an offence to fail to notify the registration authority that a supplier has ceased to trade, which in itself will be a major incentive to supply that information.