Car registration snoops planned
TOWN hall snoops have been caught red-handed using the DVLA’s database to spy on people.
The Big Brother tactics emerged after councils were given the green light to use DVLA car registration records, strictly to track down owners of abandoned vehicles.
Instead, and in breach of the rules, “inflated” bureaucrats have been checking up on residents suspected of offences that have nothing to do with motoring.
As a result, several councils have been banned from accessing the database.
Scores more have received warnings after serious breaches were uncovered.
An audit of 155 of the 432 local authorities allowed to use the database showed that the DVLA’s system was accessed 750 times a day in the 2009/10 financial year.
However, it was discovered that councils were using the system to track down people for a variety of offences including horse fouling, littering and owning out-of-control dogs.
The DVLA sent out letters to chief executives of 56 authorities where serious breaches of the system had been uncovered and the councils received a red coded warning.
A further 99 also received warnings about abusing the system and 12 which failed to make the changes requested by the DVLA have been banned altogether.
Dylan Sharpe, campaign director of Big Brother Watch, said: “The outrageous and often illegal abuse of the DVLA database is yet another example of the way in which local councils will use any available means to keep a check on their residents.
“Law-abiding people, or those suspected of very minor offences, are regularly having their personal lives exposed.
“They are being spied on for nonsensical reasons by these inflated town hall bureaucrats.
“The Government needs to rein in this sort of clandestine snooping as a matter of urgency.” The DVLA database holds the details of the registered owner of every car in the UK.
Inspectors found councils were breaching the rules by “fishing” for registration plates with partial numbers, or failing to log in and out of the database correctly.
Councils were given 24-hour access to the database to make it easier to find the owners of abandoned vehicles.
Following a move by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs the access was upgraded to help council staff investigate so called SDHp “environmental crimes”.
A DVLA spokesman said: “We carry out regular audits of users to ensure they respect the terms and conditions of the contract and user agreements which cover this service. The reasons for suspension range from failure to respond to an audit letter to failure to comply with record keeping or data access requirements.
“In most cases, suspensions were related to mismanagement and record keeping, rather than inappropriate access.”
The barred authorities are Nottingham City and Ashfield in Nottinghamshire; Corby in Northamptonshire; Brighton and Hove, Hastings and Lewes, all in East Sussex; Elmbridge in Surrey; Hull in East Yorkshire; Tower Hamlets in east London; Blackpool in Lancashire; Bedford in Bedfordshire and Stroud, Gloucestershire.
