Clause 47
Road Safety Bill [Lords]
5:15 pm
Stephen Ladyman (Minister of State, Department for Transport; South Thanet, Labour)
I am sure that the hon. Gentleman does not intend to push what is clearly a probing amendment to a vote. The amendment would give rise to some strange anomalies. As he said, EUCARIS has so far been ratified only by the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg. We have not ratified it yet and will be able to do so only after the Bill has been passed.
The hon. Gentleman himself pointed out that the French have not ratified the treaty, so if we were to limit the exchange of information to countries within EUCARIS we would not be able to exchange information with the French authorities. My constituents in Kent are keen to move towards a system by which we can take enforcement action alongside the French authorities. It is in all our interests to have a slightly wider scope than EUCARIS. I understand that there is a significant problem with stolen vehicles being imported from Japan, which is outside the EUCARIS treaty. We need to be able to exchange information with the Japanese authorities to try to get to grips with the situation; that is in our interests and in theirs.
The hon. Gentleman clearly does not want information about British citizens to be released to countries that would have less stringent requirements in respect of data protection, for example. I can give him the absolute assurance that before engaging in a relationship with any foreign authority to exchange information about British citizens, the DVLA would first ensure that that country’s standards, its data protection legislation, the security of its systems and its procedure were at least a match for ours. However, in respect of our partners in the European Union and the key countries with which we would want to be able to exchange information, I have no doubt that we can come to arrangements that enable us to be confident that the information we provide is being properly treated, so that we can act accordingly.