Forged / Fake Driver Licences

The request was refused by Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.

Dear Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency,

Month on month since 01/01/2019:

1. how many fake / forged licenses have been presented to the DVLA for exchange
2. How many successful prosecutions have occurred

Regarding drivers that hold an EU license, but no UK license, and are the subject of prosecution/conviction in the UK (for example, speeding):

3. what is the DVLA's procedure for creating a 'shell' record/license for the subject against which to record the endorsement
4. month on month, since 01/01/2019, how many such records have been created

5. How can the existence of such a record, not recorded against a UK address be checked - what service is akin to https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence

6. What information is available (reports, meetings, discussions etc.) about the legislation requiring UK residents to register to their CURRENT address (or face fine) whereas other residents, holding an EU license are not required to exchange, are not required to link their license to a UK residence i.e. are immune to the address offense?

7. contact details for the equivalent DVLA offices in other countries - address, phone, and email

The figures, in a spreadsheet format, would be appreciated.

Yours faithfully,

Mr P Swift

FOI, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

Dear Mr Swift

Thank you for your e-mail requesting information. The DVLA are dealing with your request under the terms of The Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your request has been given reference number: FOIR9651.

You should expect to receive a reply to your request by 3 March.

If you have any further questions or enquiries on this request please quote the reference number.

Regards

Debbie
Freedom of Information Team
Strategy, Policy and Communications Directorate
DVLA | Swansea | SA6 7JL

‘We can always spot an untaxed car.  Tax it or lose it. Go to www.gov.uk/vehicletax’.

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FOI, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

Dear Mr Swift

Apologies the date that you should receive a reply is 1 March.

Regards

Freedom of Information Team
Strategy, Policy and Communications Directorate
DVLA | Swansea | SA6 7JL

‘We can always spot an untaxed car.  Tax it or lose it. Go to www.gov.uk/vehicletax’.

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Dear FOI,

Thank you

Yours sincerely,

Mr P Swift

FOI, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

2 Attachments

Please see the attached update to your Freedom Of Information request,
FOIR9651

 

Regards

 

Freedom of Information Team

Strategy, Policy and Communications Directorate

DVLA | Swansea | SA6 7JL

 

[1][IMG]

 

‘We can always spot an untaxed car.  Tax it or lose it. Go to
[2]www.gov.uk/vehicletax’.

 

Twitter: [3]@dvlagovuk  |  Facebook: [4]dvlagovuk  |  YouTube: [5]dvlagov

 

************************************************************************************
Correspondents should note that all communications to DVLA may be
automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded for lawful purposes.

Please visit [6]www.gov.uk/browse/driving for government information on
all aspects of motoring, ranging from log books and driving licences to
driving tests and vehicle tax.
************************************************************************************

References

Visible links
1. http://www.dft.gov.uk/dvla
2. http://www.gov.uk/vehicletax
3. http://www.twitter.com/dvlagovuk
4. http://www.facebook.com/dvlagovuk
5. http://www.youtube.com/dvlagov
6. http://www.gov.uk/browse/driving

Mr P Swift left an annotation ()

DVLA response:
Thank you for your email of 2 February, requesting information under the terms of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
I am sorry but the DVLA needs additional time to answer your request. We are
considering how the following exemption, under the FOIA, might apply to information
that we may or may not hold within the scope of your request:
Section 31(1)(a) – Prevention or detection of crime
As provided for in section 17(2) of the Freedom of Information Act, the DVLA is
considering the public interest test for the above exemption and will let you know the
outcome no later than 15 March 2022.

Dear FOI,

You have had 20 working days to consider this.

To what aspects of the request do you consider the exemption may apply?

Why have the remaining sections not been addressed?

Please provide your considerations to date

Yours sincerely,

Mr P Swift

FOI, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

Dear Mr Swift

The FOI team will aim to get your reply to you as soon as possible.

Regards

Freedom of Information Team
Strategy, Policy and Communications Directorate
DVLA | Swansea | SA6 7JL

‘We can always spot an untaxed car.  Tax it or lose it. Go to www.gov.uk/vehicletax’.

show quoted sections

FOI, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

3 Attachments

Please see the attached reply to your Freedom Of Information request,
FOIR9651.

 

Regards

 

Freedom of Information Team

Strategy, Policy and Communications Directorate

DVLA | Swansea | SA6 7JL

 

[1][IMG]

 

‘We can always spot an untaxed car.  Tax it or lose it. Go to
[2]www.gov.uk/vehicletax’.

 

Twitter: [3]@dvlagovuk  |  Facebook: [4]dvlagovuk  |  YouTube: [5]dvlagov

 

 

 

************************************************************************************
Correspondents should note that all communications to DVLA may be
automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded for lawful purposes.

Please visit [6]www.gov.uk/browse/driving for government information on
all aspects of motoring, ranging from log books and driving licences to
driving tests and vehicle tax.
************************************************************************************

References

Visible links
1. http://www.dft.gov.uk/dvla
2. http://www.gov.uk/vehicletax
3. http://www.twitter.com/dvlagovuk
4. http://www.facebook.com/dvlagovuk
5. http://www.youtube.com/dvlagov
6. http://www.gov.uk/browse/driving

Dear Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency's handling of my FOI request 'Forged / Fake Driver Licences'.

I sought:
7. contact details for the equivalent DVLA offices in other countries -
address, phone, and email.

You replied:
We have taken this question as requesting the customer service contact details for
international driver and vehicle licensing authorities.. Although the DVLA may hold some information within the scope of this question, section 21 of the FOIA exempts us from providing information which is reasonably accessible to you by other means. This information can be obtained from the internet

A. Where on the internet
B. how do you define 'reasonably accessible'
C. please provide the information you possess

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/f...

Yours faithfully,

Mr P Swift

FOI, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

Thank you for your e-mail requesting information. The DVLA are dealing with your request under the terms of The Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your request has been given reference number: FOIR9561 IR.

You should expect to receive a reply to your request by 21 April

If you have any further questions or enquiries on this request please quote the reference number.

Regards

Freedom of Information Team
Strategy, Policy and Communications Directorate
DVLA | Swansea | SA6 7JL

We can always spot an untaxed car. Tax it or lose it.
Go to www.gov.uk/vehicletax

Twitter: @dvlagovuk  |  Facebook: dvlagovuk  |  YouTube: dvlagov

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Dear FOI,

Please advise by when i can expect to receive the outcome of my IR

Yours sincerely,

Mr P Swift

Dear FOI,

Please advise by when i can expect the Internal Review to be completed.

Yours sincerely,

Mr P Swift

Mr P Swift left an annotation ()

Reported to the ICO
From: icocasework <icocasework@ico.org.uk>
Sent: 07 June 2022 10:53
Subject: We have received your email. Rydym wedi derbyn eich ebost

Thank you for contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office. We confirm that we have received your correspondence. If you have any special requirements that mean you would like us to communicate with you in a specific way, please let us know and we will make adjustments if we can.

If you have asked us for advice - we will respond within 14 days. While you wait, you should regularly check our website (www.ico.org.uk) for relevant guidance, as we are updating this all the time. You should read our Guide to the UK GDPR. If you have raised a question that we have answered on our website, we may respond by sending you a link to it. But will do our best to provide you with the information you need.

If you have made a new complaint - we’re unlikely to look into it unless you have raised it with the responsible organization (for a data protection complaint) or the responsible public authority (for a freedom of information complaint) first. Please make sure you have sent us a copy of their final response to you. We will assign your complaint to a case officer as soon as we can, and they will contact you in due course.

If your correspondence relates to an existing case - we will add it to your case and consider it on allocation to a case officer. If you believe we have either failed to take appropriate steps to respond to your data protection complaint, or we do not provide you with information about the progress or outcome of your complaint within the next three months, you may be able to apply to the First-tier Tribunal to require us to respond to your complaint or to provide you with information about its progress. (www.gov.uk - information rights and data protection: appeal against the Information Commissioner)

If you represent an organisation and you are reporting a personal data breach under the GDPR or the Data Protection Act 2018 - we aim to contact you within seven days to confirm receipt and to provide you with a case reference number. If you want advice urgently, you should telephone our helpline on 0303 123 1113. If we consider the incident is minor or you have indicated that you do not consider it meets the threshold for reporting, you may not receive a response from us, or we may respond by sending you a link to the relevant part of our guidance. You can find out more about data breach reporting on our website.

Where a significant cyber incident occurs, you may also need to report this to the National Cyber Security Centre (the NCSC). To help you decide, you should read the NCSC’s guidance about their role and the type of incidents that you should consider reporting. (www.ncsc.gov.uk -incident-management)

Incidents that might lead to a heightened risk of individuals being affected by fraud, should be reported to Action Fraud (www.actionfraud.police.uk) - the UK’s national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre. If your organisation is in Scotland, then reports should be made to Police Scotland (www.scotland.police.uk).

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If you have reported spam email – we are unlikely to need to contact you again, unless we need more information to help with our investigations. We publish details about the action we've taken on nuisance messages on our website.

If you have asked for information you think we might hold - we will contact you if we need any more information to help us respond. Otherwise, we will respond within our public and statutory service levels. For more information please visit our webpage ‘request information from us’ (go to our homepage and follow the link for ‘about the ICO’ and ‘our information’).

If you have only copied your correspondence to us - we will not respond.

There is more detailed information, including information on our current response times, on our service standards and what to expect webpage. You can also call 0303 123 1113, we welcome calls in Welsh on 029 2067 8400. You can also contact us on live chat (please visit our webpage ‘contact us’ and ‘live chat’).

For information about what we do with personal data please see our privacy notice: https://ico.org.uk/global/privacy-notice/

Yours sincerely

The Information Commissioner’s Office

FOI, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

1 Attachment

Mr Swift

Please see attached an internal review

ICO Case Reference: IC-174550-D9X4

Regards

Freedom of Information Team

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Dear Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency,

I note your decision that the information I requested is already available elsewhere, but would be grateful if you could point me to its exact location.
As you may be aware, the ICO's guidance is that when applying a Section 21 exemption, the authority should "provide the applicant with precise directions to the information so that it can be found without difficulty". (https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio...)

I would be grateful if you could confirm whether I am eligible to receive information under the regime you suggest.

As you may be aware, ICO guidance states that when applying Section 21 exemptions "the authority should ensure that the applicant is familiar with the details of the regime and how it operates" (see https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio...).

Please confirm that, prior to responding, citing s21, you have confirmed the information you possess, it that apparently available to others in the public domain.

This will extend to ensuring the email addresses are in the public domain - that those you possess mirror those held online

Please confirm the information is fully in the public domain.

Even this does not mean that it is automatically exempt under section 21. I question whether the information is 't reasonably accessible' and whether there may be special circumstances that mean that I cannot access the information from the public source - for example, a need to be a member of a particular organisation / Authority.

Please advise for how many authorities you hold contact details. I am unaware which countries / Authorities may have such an organisation, which may rely upon other organisations. Also please resupply the name of these organisations - it appears many go by a variety of titles - you use DVLA, others use very different titles, for example, TCD (transport control department).

please explain your interpretation of 'reasonably accessible'.

simply referring a requestor to 'the internet' appears inappropriate.

I have asked for a very specific piece of information which you hold, it would not be legitimate for an authority to tell an applicant that the information could be found on a large website. It is far less appropriate to refer me to the entire WWW!

In other words, the information is unlikely to be reasonably accessible tome because a large amount of searching is required in order to locate the information. In such circumstances, you are expected to provide a precise link or some other direct reference as to where the information could actually be found. I would suggest that simply disclosing the information you possess is far more straightforward, less onerous for all.

However, citing s21, no other exemption is available to you and I, therefore, trust, when addressing the above you will reconsider your reply, possibly providing the held information in the usual course of business?

Yours faithfully,

Mr P Swift
reference:
https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio...

Mr P Swift left an annotation ()

To ICO:
auto-reponder:
Thank you
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Thank you, we have received your complaint.

Need to send documents to us?
If you have other relevant documents for us, you can post them to:

Customer Contact - FOI complaint documents
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF

Please include a covering letter with your name and email address, so that we can match your documents to your complaint.

What happens next?
We will contact you in the next few weeks to provide you with a case reference number. We'll assign your complaint to a case officer as soon as we can. If we're unable to accept your complaint, we will explain why.

Mr P Swift left an annotation ()

In your email dated 22 March you stated:
I sought:
7. contact details for the equivalent DVLA offices in other countries -
address, phone, and email.
You replied:
We have taken this question as requesting the customer service contact
details for international driver and vehicle licensing authorities..
Although the DVLA may hold some information within the scope of this
question, section 21 of the FOIA exempts us from providing information
which is reasonably accessible to you by other means. This information
can be obtained from the internet
A. Where on the internet
B. how do you define 'reasonably accessible'
C. please provide the information you possess

================================================

You asked us to review our response of 15 March 2022, specifically in connection with
question 7.
Having conducted a review of our response, I can confirm that section 21 of the FOIA
was correctly applied and trust the following clarifies the reasons for this.
You are seeking contact details for international driver and vehicle licensing
authorities. Given the generic nature of your request, the DVLA considers it
reasonable for you to use open-source materials such as using internet search
facilities, to locate contact details for registration authorities in the specific countries
you may be interested in.
You have asked us to provide you with the information we hold, however given that
the information is reasonably accessible to you, we consider that this part of your
request has been answered.