Data Privacy

With the Government saving money by being paperless, the tax payer should be seeing a reduction in costs, however there seems to be an opportunity to make more money as opposed to less.  By making services available on line the profit on fees will increase, with the DVSA being responsible for accrediting all CPC courses for a fee on a yearly renewable basis, when is the tax payer going to see a benefit based on the savings?  The DVSA have streamlined their services, are saving on resources without costly test centres to run in many areas, and a cash intake from the sale of properties. So what will this extra money be spent on? Well prevention of scamming the system, fraud or similar. In fact anything that would divert money from Government resources.

So although scam websites with DVSA in their web address are reportedly illegal, why is taking so long to stop the few who are making vast profits from the less savvy internet user.  Surely the extra available funds should be directed this way. Well it seems that the most effort is advertising the fact that these sites exist, which is all very well, but unfortunately those who are most likely to be caught out are the ones who are less likely to heed or even understand the warnings,

As with most things, if you already revolve in an environment then you would expect a certain level of knowledge and that just is not the case.  With computer use estimated rather than confirmed, then surely information should be slightly easier to access.  Any system is easy and usable with experience, but with many using this service once in their lifetime that seems wishful thinking.

The DVLA have had huge staff loses with a rolling redundancy programme for over 6000 staff as we see the end of local offices, pushing the consumer online, which from my experience can be tedious, time consuming and at times very frustrating, and I consider myself to be very internet literate.

It now transpires that the DVLA will be raising their fee to make a 'small surplus' which to you and me is profit, for providing vehicle owner details to private parking agencies. A service that surely is using a loophole in data protection and leaves the tax payer vulnerable, particularly to the less scrupulous operators.

If a private company cannot enforce the fees and parking restrictions on their own property then surely individual management systems need to review their operating procedures, not sit in an office and target individuals because they do not have enough manpower.  If giving out data is cheaper than on the ground enforcement, then something is wrong with the system.  With this resource now being available on line as opposed to the previous postal requests then enforcement has just become too easy and invites lazy practice.

The shared ANPR data which the DVSA access is necessary in this technological age, with no displayed tax discs or MOT evidence.  However, selling of personal data should surely be restricted. With so much remote Policing and enforcement, we won't have anyone working in the agency offices, but just techy equipment and an operator.

The DVSA working with other agencies including the DVLA will have their own STMO, which does also confirms the moving into more limited companies, owned by the Secretary of State and the potential to sell shares. Privatisation is just around the corner for all departments.

Tax Discs

So the tax discs on new cars is to change, I thought closing the DVLA offices, followed by the redundancies and general scale down and cram of the system that has been in place for years, and remember we are heading for different not better, we are now taking a step backwards.

Do you remember the days of 'tax applied for' plastered on the windscreen? This was then felt to be tax evasion, so steps were taking to move into continuous taxation of vehicles, a slow expensive process, but eventually we had mastered the art, and SORN was born to fill the gaps, well don't look now but tax applied for is back.

Dealerships are no longer able to pre-tax our cars when we purchase a new one, so for fourteen days we can drive a new car untaxed, section 33 of the vehicle excise and registration act has been altered to allow this.

Did we want change, because the 6700 staff who saw this coming will wonder what the change in law was all about, of course there would have been a fleeting mention about this, but lets not make too much fuss in case the public hear about it. Although employment has risen in the UK, and don't forget there has been an addition of those in voluntary work to the numbers, Government staff are falling by the wayside in droves.

The excuses for avoiding displaying a tax disc currently, are,

1. I took too much Viagra so could not leave the house
2. If the cost of the tax disc is more than the value of the car, you don't have to pay it
3. I broke both arms so cannot fill out the paperwork

Other responses include

I have been out of the country and when I came back I forgot where I had parked my car
My dog ate the reminder

So continuous taxation isn't so effective after all, therefore we have to assume continuous insurance isn't either. As it will no longer be necessary to supply insurance details for taxation purposes, how long before there are less taxed or insured vehicles on the road. The removal of this will save £1.1m but is it a false economy.

Legislation is in place to deliver continuous SORN, instead of the current yearly renewal, this will tie in with the changes to the finance bill. From April 2014, lorries over 12 tonne will be required to pay a road user charge along with their vehicle tax.

A shocking 39,284 days were lost in the DVLA last year from sick leave, a big bill for the tax payer.  All of the changes to legislation and operating procedures will never save enough to cover that expense.