Monday, December 03, 2007

DVLA makes £9.5 million by selling data?

Back in January I posted about how the DVLA was selling data to third party providers. This was revealed in a response by the TRansport minister, Stephen Ladyman to a written question from Andrew Pelling.

Pelling's question asked for detailed number of how often the DVLA charged thrid parties for the data, and Stephen Ladyman said, "The DVLA does not collate the number of such transactions." This is simply not true. The DVLA does collate the number of transactions it carries out.

In figures released under the Freedom of Information Act the DVLA has said that it actioned 1,264,284 request in 2005/06; 1,343,903 requests in 2006/07 and between April and August this year had actioned 651,957 requests for information from third parties which it then charged for. The charge is £2.50 per enquiry.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just what is the legality of selling on data without the providers permission. If a commercial company does it with information that their customers provided (although the customer may have the alternative of not providing data by using an alternative supplier of method of purchase)then that company would be in breach of the data protection act and liable to penalties. How is it that a government agency that extorts the data under threat of criminal penalties can breach the trust of the provider and be exempt from any comeback? Surely there must be a case for judicial review for abuse of administrative process?

Anonymous said...

Since when is "action" a verb?

dizzy said...

Wordweb
Verb: action akshun

2. Put in effect
"He actioned the operation"
- carry through, accomplish, execute, carry out, fulfill [N. Amer], fulfil [Brit, Cdn]

Mulligan said...

I wonder if I dare declare that "I do not collate transactions" as part of my next tax return?

Pretty sure that inadvertant errors or ignorance of the law would not be a permissible defence for me (or any other member of Joe Public) either.

Anonymous said...

According the the FOI letter the DVLA are not selling data to make anything.

They are required to release the information under Regulation 27 of the Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) Regulations 2002.

The DVLA aren't allowed to make a profit from this process but charge £2.50 administration fee.

flashgordonnz said...

Is this the charge for supplying me with the name and address of the owner of a vehicle I believe did me a wrong? So I pays me 2.50 and I get to know where you live and can sit outside your house planning how to get even because you got away from the lights quicker than me.