CLUBS APPEAL FOR DVLA DATA RETHINK
Registration agency urged to help classic fans track down their cars – and it doesn’t need to breach the UK’s existing data protection laws
Classic fans could find it much easier to track down long-lost cars – and get in touch with their owners – if a suggestion put forward by some of the nation’s biggest clubs is taken up by the DVLA.
Roche Bentley, club secretary of the MG Owners’ Club, appealed to the car registration agency to make it easier for owners and previous owners to get in touch with one another, using facilities already used to process parking fines.
He said: ‘If you check the Lost & Found columns of [our club magazine], Enjoying MG, you will find many people trying to find vehicles that they used to own. Some write to the DVLA, asking for the current owner’s name and address. The DVLA refuse, quoting their data protection obligations. This is a weak excuse, because the DVLA do hand out names and addresses to parking enforcement companies.
‘My suggestion is that the DVLA offer a new service. If you want to communicate with the current owner of a vehicle that you used to own then you apply online, giving your contact information and asking them to contact you by email. The current owner is not obliged to respond, of course. The DVLA could offer this service for say, £25 – the same for a replacement V5C. If the DVLA still quote ‘data protection’ as their excuse for refusal, then ask them why another government body, the Civil Aviation Authority, can provide aircraft owners with the names of registered owners for free.’ John Lakey, DVLA officer for the Cambridge- Oxford Owners Club, said ‘I’d support the MG Owners’ Club in aiming for this – I think it would be great for people with classics to get in touch with former owners, as long as it’s an approach which people can then decide whether to respond to and people’s addresses aren’t shared without consent.
‘If I’d just bought a car and I wanted to research its history, I’d happily pay for the DVLA to send a letter out on my behalf. There have been lots of instances in our club where people have wanted to trace the history of their classics.’
The Rover Sports Register urged a note of caution, saying that while the idea has potential the DVLA – which is currently working through a backlog of paperwork applications that built up during the pandemic and has been working to resolve an ongoing strike – would need adequate resources to manage it.
Mike Maher, chairman, said: ‘The approach we take through the Register already seems to work quite well – only recently, we had a gentleman get in touch with us who had a little bit of history on his car and wanted to find out more, and through our records we were able to put him in touch with one of its former owners, and the two ended up having a good old chat about the car.
‘I’m not sure how well this would work on a national stage – it’s an interesting concept, but it would have to be done in a way that makes sure people’s data can be kept secure and have the staff at the DVLA to make it work.’
However, the DVLA has insisted that it will not put owners or former keeper in touch with one another, and doesn’t plan to do so.
A spokesperson for the agency told CCW: ‘Providing a service of the nature described would not fall within the DVLA’s core functions and is not something we could consider offering.’