(LD):...Until
now, international driving permits have been provided
by the
AA and the RAC. For no clear reason the Government
have decided to abandon that arrangement and to use post offices
instead. I am very keen on using the Post Office but I wonder
whether now is the time to abandon a well-worn system and to
start all over again with a new one. I would feel better about
using just post offices if we were going to use all post
offices—but the Government will be using only 2,500 of them, and
I was not terribly reassured by the point made by the Explanatory
Memorandum that most people will be within 10 miles of an issuing
post office. Ten miles is an awfully long way to go to get a
document.
According to the report from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny
Committee, under the new arrangements Northern Ireland will have
only two post offices issuing permits. I would like the Minister
to clarify that the Government have had second thoughts about
that and that it is no longer the case. My concern is that there
is no online system and that the Government have abandoned the
previous mail order system operated by the AA and the RAC. Saying that you can
get a permit only by going into a post office and queueing up is
a really 19th-century approach...
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State,
Department for Transport (Baroness Sugg) (Con):...On
consultation, obviously this affects a huge number of people. We
did a lot of consultation around the 1968 Vienna convention,
which brought this in, we have held many discussions with
motoring organisations such as the AA, the RAC and the RAC Foundation,
and we have also had separate engagements with consumer
associations, which are helping us to provide guidance to
people...
...The noble Baroness asked about the change to
the issuing of IDPs, as they are now issued by the Post Office
and not online. At the end of 2017, we looked at four different
options: to continue and extend the existing arrangements, which
you could do by post—that was with the
AA and the RAC; to give responsibility to the
DVLA to issue IDPs, via the Post Office or another supplier; the
possibility of an online system but with the physical document
provided by someone else; and we looked at a DVLA online direct
supplying system. We decided to reject the option to continue and
extend the existing arrangements, as it would not have been
possible to continue that under the current government
procurement rules. There was also considerable uncertainty about
the volume which was needed, which continues, and we thought that
would be difficult for potential suppliers to be able to quote
accurately. We did consider the possibility of an online system,
but ultimately that was rejected. We thought that there would be
a significant risk of a wasted investment on that. Moreover, such
a system would not have been available to the 5 million licence
holders who are without a photo card licence—although, obviously,
the vast majority have...
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