The Mail on Sunday has been investigating the scandal of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

"DVLA sells your details to criminals by MARTIN DELGADO, ROB LUDGATE and MARK NICHOL, Mail on Sunday 08:16am 27th November 2005

The Government is selling the names and home addresses of motorists on its drivers' database to convicted criminals, a Mail on Sunday investigation has revealed.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) tells would-be wheel-clampers there is "no problem" with them buying drivers' home addresses - even if they have a criminal record.

Indeed, the two bosses of one clamping firm on the list of companies to whom the DVLA is happy to sell drivers' details are currently serving seven years' jail between them for extorting money from motorists.

The Mail on Sunday has now forced the DVLA to hand over its list of 157 firms which can buy personal information about drivers at £2.50 a time. All the companies need do is tap in a registration plate, and back comes the full name and address of the vehicle's owners."

If the DVLA cannot effectively prevent abuse when they deal with fewer than 150 companies, then what chance is there for the Government to be able to assure us about the controversial proposed National Identity Register ? According to the Home Office ID Card "Procurement Strategy Market Sounding" documents will have 265 Government Departments and 44,000 private sector organisations "accredited" to be linked to the system !

...The Mail on Sunday list does not include other vast users of the DVLA systems such as Capita plc, who are subcontracted to run the controversial London Congestion Charge scheme on behalf of Transport for London. We have been asking questions about how this data is handled by Capita, since before the inception of the scheme.

Are the DVLA also selling such data to say, Sainsbury's supermarkets or other Petrol retailers which use Automatic Number Plate recognition ?

What is the true extent of the DVLA sales of our private data to commercial enterprises ?