Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency
Freedom of Information
DVLA
Longview Road
Swansea
SA6 7JL
Julian Adams
Email
[FOI #28158 email]
Website
www.direct.gov.uk/motoring
Your Ref
9 February 2010
Our Ref
FOIR 1817/10
Date:
11 February 2010
Dear Mr Adams,
Freedom of information request
Thank you for your e-mail of 9 February 2010.
I will firstly try to explain the process behind interrogating the vehicles database which has
been designed very specifically for the fast input of data, and retrieval of individual records
on very specific fields for statutory purposes.
In order to determine the relevant information using a bespoke scan the scan parameters
would first have to be designed (‘design work’). This could be expected to take 1 day.
Following the design stage, development work would then have to be carried out and that
would take a further day with another day of testing. DVLA’s IT provider has advised that
the 1 day design stage would ascertain exactly what type of parameters, coding, software,
script type would be required to run the scan against the relevant shared network database.
The 1 day development stage is the actual physical writing/coding of the scan script in the
appropriate software tool that will be used. The 1 day unit testing stage is whereby the scan
is run in a test environment and the output checked to make sure it delivers what it has been
designed to deliver. It is only following successful testing that the scan is actually run.
The time and expense to actually then run a scan for the information requested will divert
time from core business activities as well as essential public funds to operate DVLA
effectively. As the above sequence of events take place to merely determine if the required
information is held, we have not performed a series of further calculations to show the further
costs of locating, retrieving and extracting of the information.
It should be noted that DVLA’s IT suppliers will charge between £600 - £1,000 per day. The
section 12 exemption was therefore applied taking account both the costs of designing,
testing and running the initial scan and the subsequent location, retrieval and extraction
process.
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I would like to advise you that it may be possible for DVLA to provide the information
requested at a later date due to the implementation of new IT systems, thereby bringing the
cost of doing so below the appropriate limit. At present we have no exact date of
implementation. However a short term solution to vehicle information is currently being
tested. We are very hopeful that we will have some information available by the end of the
March 2010. The data that should available will be Make / Model / Primary Colour /
Secondary Colour / Vehicle Record Type and Tax Class.
Please feel free to contact DVLA at a later date when I expect to have information available
for you.
If you are not content with the explanation in this letter then you are entitled to have a full
independent internal review please contact us by e-mail if you so wish to proceed with that
course of action.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply
directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information
DVLA
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