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Mr. Miller: My hon. Friend has raised an interesting point about the safety of second-hand vehicles, which is very pertinent to me. My wife suffered whiplash injuries in a crash. Immediately following that, there was a press announcement about the reinstallation of a petrol cap. Had there been a computerised system, she could have got that information far earlier and perhaps avoided the injuries that she sustained.
Mr. Dismore: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that intervention, because it graphically illustrates the point I am making. Design faults are often found early on, but sometimes they are longer term and the MOT system could be a useful early-warning system for consumers who have bought a particular vehicle or as part of the second-hand market.
I also welcome the Bill because it will enable the inspectorate to monitor garages much more closely. We all agree that most garages do an excellent job when they repair cars and carry out MOT tests, and that they would not be involved in ripping off the consumer in any way, shape or form. Equally, as in every profession, one or two rogues may not test vehicles as they should. Someone may issue an MOT certificate on a dodgy vehicle in return for a back-hander, but the Bill will allow us to monitor statistically the performance of garages. If the same garage issues dodgy MOT certificates time and again, we will be able to clamp down quickly and easily, which is a great consumer benefit.
I am also pleased that we are putting the training of people involved in MOT testing on a statutory basis. My hon. Friend the Member for Harrow, East (Mr. McNulty), who is not in his place, had quite a pot at solicitors. Perhaps I may return the compliment by having a pot at teachers, lecturers and instructors--there are good, bad and indifferent ones. Putting the training mechanisms on a statutory basis, including the charging arrangements for them, will result only in an increase in standards.
The Bill will also achieve much better supervision of MOT testing stations. Garage chains were mentioned earlier, and the authorised examiner may not be able to be present at every garage for every test. That is inevitable. Therefore, I am pleased that the Bill provides for nominating supervisors at each MOT testing station to ensure that the tests are carried out effectively and competently. That is an excellent improvement that has been made to the Bill.
We discussed how the Bill will help crime prevention, but many issues that warrant being highlighted were not mentioned. In particular, the Bill will help to remove the incentive to steal and forge MOT certificates. That is one of the problems that often occurs through the dodgy garages that I mentioned earlier--those who, for a back-hander, issue dodgy MOT certificates--which find that blank MOT certificates have disappeared from the
garage safe. If, as a result of the Bill, the definitive MOT record is on a database rather than a paper certificate, it will make a great contribution to combating the problem of stolen MOT certificates. It will also mean that we can stop supplying blank MOT certificates and get rid of the whole paper chase.
My hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Test (Dr. Whitehead) mentioned the important benefit of including vehicle mileage on the record. One of the problems is that people rarely keep previous MOT certificates, so a vehicle's long-term history is not available. For example, a company car may cover a vast number of miles in the first year or two, which would take much of the life out of the car. Indeed, it would run it into the ground. It may then be sold on to somebody who uses it very little for two or three years. When it is sold on again, the mileage, averaged out, may look reasonable. However, it is important that the consumer buying that car knows that, in its early years, it had a lot of use, because that may affect the vehicle's life. That is another important protection for consumers.
My hon. Friend the Member for Test also made a valid point about the Bill avoiding the clocking of vehicles. It is important that we make that information available to consumers. I do not want to rehearse our earlier arguments about who can make inquiries, but I hope that this mechanism will enable consumers and those interested in vehicle safety to obtain MOT histories for the purposes that I have described.
Another benefit of the Bill is that of renewing the MOT certificate. When my tax disc comes up for renewal, I know that I must buy a new one because I receive a reminder and can trot down to the post office and fill in the relevant form. I doubt whether I am alone in that, the last time that I went to renew my tax disc at the House of Commons post office, I forgot to take my MOT certificate with me. That was a bit of a nuisance, because I then had to return to renew it on another occasion. If we have automatic renewal through a computer database, we will not need to produce our MOT certificates in order to renew our tax disc, so the risk of having to make two trips to the post office will be avoided.
Moreover, if one receives a reminder, it ensures that one renews the certificate. My hon. Friend the Minister said that, when people have to renew their tax disc, it serves as a reminder that their MOT test may be due at the same time. Although that may be so for people who have an annual tax disc, those who renew periodically during the year may find that their MOT certificate is out of sync with the disc.
Happily, the garage to which I take my car for repair issues its own reminder to me. Obviously, that is of great commercial benefit to the garage--it not only reminds me that my MOT certificate is due for renewal but suggests that I might like to go back to the garage to have the job done. It is an excellent garage and I have no qualms about taking my car there. I suspect, however, that many people forget to renew their MOT certificate and thus commit an offence along the lines that we discussed earlier. The Bill will therefore benefit consumers in that way.
For the reasons that I and my hon. Friends have given, I commend the Bill to the House and congratulate the hon. Member for Basingstoke on making such progress with it.
1.25 pm
Ms Glenda Jackson:
I add my voice to those that have already been heard in the Chamber thanking the hon. Member for Basingstoke (Mr. Hunter) for introducing the Bill. As he is aware, the Government welcome its introduction. I also thank him for his gracious comments about the help afforded to him by my officials.
I should also like to thank hon. Members who have contributed to the debate. As the hon. Member for Basingstoke said, the Second Reading debate was comparatively short. The contributions that we have heard this morning from my hon. Friends the Members for Ellesmere Port and Neston (Mr. Miller), for Kilmarnock and Loudoun (Mr. Browne) for Southampton, Test (Dr. Whitehead) for Hendon (Mr. Dismore) for North-West Norfolk (Dr. Turner) and for Broxtowe (Dr. Palmer) have been fascinating to listen to, because they have been informed and particularly detailed. I should also like to thank hon. Members not only for their good-natured approach to the debate, but, although it was brief, for the way in which the Committee stage was conducted.
I must exclude from that list the contribution of the hon. Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr. Cran), who is the official spokesperson for the Conservative Opposition on this issue. He had the temerity to dub as fatuous amendments tabled by my hon. Friends that sought to improve the Bill and to ensure a reduction in deaths and injuries on our roads. Their amendments were concerned with data protection to safeguard the individual, given the computerisation of information proposed in the Bill.
Mr. Deputy Speaker:
Order. The hon. Lady knows that I brought the hon. Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr. Cran) to order because a discussion of the amendments takes us away from the motion, which is that the Bill should be read a Third Time.
Ms Jackson:
I am grateful for your advice, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and for the fact that we share a view about the contribution of the hon. Member for Beverley and Holderness.
I shall deal with the issues that have been raised by my hon. Friends on Third Reading. My hon. Friend the Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston was rightly concerned--as I am sure that all hon. Members are--about how we ensure data protection, given the requirements of the Bill, and about individual privacy.
My hon. Friend the Member for Kilmarnock and Loudoun asked to whom information on the computerised database will be available and what information the database will contain. I trust that I shall reassure him by saying that new section 45(6B) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 covers all details of the tests--not only the results, but where and by whom the vehicle was tested. New section 46(5) allows, by regulation, disclosure of full details under new section 45(6B) to people who can show reasonable cause for wanting such information, such as for an investigation into a car accident. New section 46(6), however, provides bulk disclosure of information to anyone, but that precludes the selling of information on where, and by whom, a vehicle was tested.
My hon. Friend the Member for Test gave us painful and personal details of what had happened to him and his vehicle. He rightly highlighted the fact that a computerised central database will help to ensure that such situations do not arise in the future.
My hon. Friend the Member for Hendon brought together the central themes of this important debate. He referred to the co-ordination and dissemination of information, which can bring only benefits in the important areas of crime reduction; ensuring that testing and test centres are the best that they can be; and consumer protection. As he most tellingly pointed out, such information can also assist in the better design of motor vehicles. All that is part and parcel of what I regard as one of the central conclusions of today's debate: that the dissemination of information can play a major part in reducing the number of deaths and injuries on our roads. That was the opening theme of the debate, when we discussed new clause 1.
As I have said, the Government welcome the Bill. We believe that computerisation will bring significant benefits to MOT testing. We are proceeding with the modernisation of the existing scheme, but, as I am sure that all hon. Members know, the current legislation would impose constraints that would prevent us from achieving all our objectives. The Bill will ensure that modernisation takes place as cost-effectively as possible, and with the maximum benefits.
One of the Bill's main purposes is to amend provisions in part II of the Road Traffic Act 1988 relating to MOT testing. None of the Bill's provisions will relax or remove any of our existing controls over the scheme; on the contrary, the Bill will preserve and enhance those controls.
The main objective of MOT computerisation is to enable the Secretary of State to establish and maintain a central record of the MOT status of vehicles, and the project will ensure that the Secretary of State has better information. The need for better information has been a recurring theme today, and not only in the context of how tests are carried out. Computerisation will clearly enable testing standards to be controlled more effectively; what the Secretary of State would not be able to do without the Bill is to enable the police to check easily and quickly whether a vehicle has a valid MOT certificate. The Bill will also help to facilitate paperless vehicle relicensing transactions, and will enable information from the proposed MOT database to be used for the benefit of others. For instance, the information could be used to help to meet the cost of introducing computerisation.
As has been pointed out, the Bill provides the potential for us to reduce the amount of crime, and to make it easier for consumers to meet requirements in legislation specifying that vehicles on the road should be properly licensed and roadworthy. It will make better enforcement
possible, and may enable vehicles to be relicensed over the telephone. As I have said, we are aiming for paperless vehicle relicensing transactions.
We welcome the provisions enabling information to be made available to prescribed persons in certain cases. Hon. Members were rightly concerned about that issue, but, as I was at pains to point out, it will be for the Secretary of State to define what information may be disseminated to whom and for what amount. The Government have no intention of selling information from the database about the identity of registered keepers of vehicles; indeed, such particulars will never be recorded there. Particulars in database records, such as where and by whom an MOT test was carried out, will not be disclosed except in cases prescribed by regulations. I have responded in detail to my hon. Friend the Member for Kilmarnock and Loudoun, who was rightly worried about that.
We want to ensure that disclosures of information will be permitted only when the person requesting the information can demonstrate the existence of reasonable cause for requesting it. For example, the regulations would require it to be demonstrated that an inquirer had a legitimate connection with the state of the vehicle involved. That could be achieved by the quoting of the 17-character alpha-numeric identification number that is unique to individual vehicles.
The Bill enables the Government to obtain maximum benefit from a central computer record of the MOT test results of approximately 22 million vehicles, tested every year at 19,000 MOT testing stations. A full regulatory impact assessment has been carried out. It is estimated that the cost of computerising the MOT testing scheme will be approximately £22 million per annum. That cost will be borne initially by the Vehicle Inspectorate at the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, but passed on to motorists through an increase in the MOT test fee, amounting, we expect, to no more than around £1.
If anonymised information from the proposed MOT database is sold for commercial benefit, as we hope that it will be, the Vehicle Inspectorate will have a share in the income generated and, in turn, will use that income to help to reduce the extra £1 burden of the test fee, so the Bill will benefit consumers not only by making additional information available to them, but by helping to reduce the cost of obtaining an MOT test.
I am pleased to reiterate that the Government welcome the Bill, which will greatly assist in achieving the maximum benefits from introducing computerisation into the MOT scheme. For all those reasons, and for all the reasons that have been put forward by hon. Members, I commend the Bill.
Question put and agreed to.
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