Earl Attlee – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Earl Attlee on 2014-04-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to address the issue of online third parties acting as middlemen between the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency and driving licence applicants.

Baroness Kramer

The Government is taking decisive steps against such websites.

Officials are working with various government organisations and search engine providers to raise awareness and ensure appropriate enforcement action is taken. Ministers recently met with Google and as a result, Google has taken down a series of adverts. Similar work will be carried out with other search engine providers.

The National Trading Standards Board will receive an additional £120,000 to clamp down on misleading websites.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has issued messages on Twitter and gov.uk to advise customers that gov.uk is the only official website. Officials have worked with the press to inform customers that they may be charged an unnecessary fee if they do not use gov.uk. The DVLA is arranging to amend forms, leaflets and envelopes to make the correct website clearer for customers. Officials will continue to issue appropriate communications to help raise awareness of these sites.