---

Road Safety Bill [HL]

I support what the noble Lord, Lord Brougham and Vaux, has said. I am aware that all number plate suppliers have had to be registered with the DVLA since January 2003. I do not know what branch of government that comes under, but I would like to know if any enforcement action is taken and, if so, by whom. We are anxious that number plates are manufactured in accordance with the regulations, and that they are not in types of script which their owners think draw attention to themselves, or are difficult for the police to read. Most importantly, the DVLA should maintain an up-to-date register of number plate thefts and other infringements that pertain to a certain car. They should get us out of a position which I witnessed about three weeks ago when I was with the police. We followed a vehicle quite a long way and stopped it. The lady in it, a very respectable schoolteacher, was very shocked. She had bought the car from somebody else six months previously, but the records had not been amended. The previous owner had been a criminal and had used the car for criminal purposes—of course, he had not had insurance and all sorts of other things. That is why the automatic number plate recognition machine worked. We have advances in technology and a sort of creeping, groaning bureaucracy to back them up, which does not enable the technology to be up to date and as useful as it could be. The theft of number plates is a serious business and is increasing. I look forward to hearing what the Minister says can be done about it.