DVLA made £24m selling driver details to parking firms and councils last year

Motorists were stung with an estimated £2.61 billion in fines for parking, traffic and low-emission zones in the previous financial year – and the DVLA helped private parking companies and local authorities issue fines by selling a record amount of driver data to them, according to new analysis.

As many as 32.17 million data on vehicle holders were provided by the agency to third parties in fiscal year 2021/22, according to a study by Carwow.

The expansion of London’s ultra-low emission zone and the introduction of clean air zones in other cities has led to an increase in requests, with authorities seeking addresses of motorists to post fines to those not complying. -compliant driving cars that don’t pay per diem.

The findings of the study, shared exclusively with This is Money, reveal that DVLA has earned a massive £23.9 million in gross revenue from selling driver information to these third parties.

Carwow filed a freedom of information request with the DVLA requesting details of the number of driver data it provided during the previous financial period.

The agency’s Keeper At Date Of Event (Kadoe) database contains all vehicle owner information and is accessible to registered private companies and government agencies.

When these third parties provide the license plate number of a vehicle that has been found violating one of a number of rules using Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras, the DVLA will provide the name and address of the motorcycle’s registered holder.

After obtaining this data, private companies, municipalities and other organizations can issue (parking) fines to motorists by post.

The study found that private parking companies requested motorist information from the DVLA 8.57 million times in the previous fiscal year.

Requests from local authorities, including councils and Transport for London, exceeded 15.29 million over the same period.

The fines range from just £25 for a parking ticket issued outside London and paid within 14 days, to £160 for a breach of Red Route rules in the capital.

Assuming an average fine of £92.50, drivers were fined an estimated £2.61 billion in 2021/22.

That’s a 60 per cent increase from the £1.63bn cost to drivers five years earlier, in the 2017/18 financial year.

This financial year, which ends in early April, looks like those numbers will rise even further based on Q1 results, with an expected £2.91bn fine to be imposed.

Municipalities and other authorities do not have to pay to access a Kadoe registered holder’s details, but the DVLA does charge an administration fee of £2.50 per application.

Since the increase in private parking business and the introduction of London’s ULEZ and other clean air zones in cities, the DVLA’s gross revenue from paid Kadoe applications appears to have increased dramatically.

And Carwow’s analysis found that the huge increase in DVLA revenue over the past fiscal year was driven primarily by an increase in gift requests from local authorities.

There was a 71 percent increase in the number of times local and transport authorities used the service in 2021/22 compared to the 2017/18 financial year, it said.

A total of 8.94 million such requests were submitted in 2017/2018, a figure that rose to 15.29 million in 2021/22, and is expected to rise further this year based on Q1 results.

Last year’s introduction of new rules that allow local authorities to take over powers from the police to enforce traffic and parking violations will also increase the number of requests from money-hungry municipalities.

A huge increase in requests has resulted from the enforcement of the London ULEZ and Birmingham Clean Air Zone

This growth is likely due to a number of factors, including the emergence of clean air zones and low-traffic neighborhoods, which restrict access to certain roads, with enforcement of fines often facilitated by ANPR cameras.

For example, Birmingham City Council submitted 126,771 requests for driver data via Kadoe in 2017/2018, a figure that increased nearly tenfold to 1.19 million in 2021/22 following the introduction of the city’s Clean Air Zone in June 2021.

Bath, Portsmouth and Oxford all introduced low-emission zones in the inner city during that financial period, which is likely to have contributed to the spike in kadoe requests from local councils.

Unsurprisingly, Transport for London was the biggest individual growth driver of local government use of Kadoe.

TfL made just 1.49 million requests in 2017/18, but asked for details on 4.12 million drivers in 2021/22. That volume is expected to grow to 4.5 million in 2022/23.

The previous expansion of the capital’s ULEZ is likely to account for much of that increase, with the zone expanding from a small central part of the city to all parts within the North and South ring roads by October 2021.

A further planned extension of the zone to all 32 boroughs within the M25 due in August 2023 means that the number of Kadoe requests is expected to rise dramatically in the coming months.

Despite these huge numbers, there have been relatively few complaints from registered vehicle owners with the DVLA about the release of their information.

Between 2018 and 2022, only 1,666 informal complaints were submitted to the organization, of which only 239 were upheld.

The DVLA also told Carwow of 417 formal complaints made during the period using its complaints procedures or through an MP, although it could not say how many were upheld.

Hugo Griffiths, Carwow’s consumer editor, led the investigation and said the shocking findings are enough to investigate whether motorists are being treated fairly.

“Drivers are constantly threatened with fines and penalties in everyday life, to the extent that a car’s license plate is no longer just a license plate: it has become a proxy for a driver’s sorting code and bank. account number,” Mr. Griffiths told This is Money.

“Nobody would suggest not enforcing traffic laws, and the DVLA is only doing its job by granting requests for driver information.

‘Nevertheless, a huge number of traffic restrictions and clean air zones have been added in recent years, and municipalities have recently been given new powers to enforce traffic violations.

“With a 57 percent increase in requests for driver data since 2017 and a record number of estimated fines for motorists, increased oversight and an official inquiry into whether drivers are being treated fairly, it feels long overdue.”

Commenting on the findings of the investigation, a DVLA spokesperson told the car sales platform: ‘The fee charged for releasing the custodian’s data is intended to cover the cost of providing the information.

This means that the cost is borne by those requesting the information and not passed on to the general taxpayer.

“We take our responsibility to protect information very seriously and we have robust safeguards in place to ensure that data is used properly. If we become aware of any issues, we will investigate and take prompt action if necessary.”