Written question asked by Lord Lucas (Conservative), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Earl Attlee (Conservative) on Friday, 3 December 2010.

Driving: Licences

Question: To ask Her Majesty’s Government on what elements of statute, regulation or case law the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency based its previous practice in relation to ““Section 99 revocations”” that drivers who failed to surrender their licences were entitled to continue to drive for 12 months; on what elements of statute, regulation or case law they base their current view that drivers have no entitlement; and what assessment they have made of the impact of this change.

Answer: Section 88 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 provides 12 months’ cover to drive for those motorists who have previously held a valid licence and made a qualifying application which has been received by the Secretary of State. The legislation allows the driver to continue driving while they await receipt of the new licence. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) had previously applied this concession to drivers whose licences had been revoked regardless of whether or not they had complied with the requirement under Section 99(3) of the Act to surrender the licence for endorsement of a conviction. The Home Office and the police challenged this view arguing that the 12-month concessionary period was never intended to cover those drivers who failed to comply with an order by the court for the driver to surrender their licence for endorsement. Following a review of the legislation, the Department for Transport has agreed with the Home Office's view that drivers who failed to surrender their licence for endorsement should not be covered to drive under Section 88 of the Act. The DVLA assessed the number of drivers affected and, in order to limit the impact, applied the change going forward to all drivers who failed to surrender their licences from 7 November 2010 rather than look at the whole population of drivers retrospectively.

Secondary information