Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of ghost number plate enforcement in England.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and other government departments to improve the identification and enforcement of number plate crime, including the use of cloned and “ghost” number plates. It is already illegal to use a vehicle displaying cloned or “ghost” number plates.

The enforcement of road traffic law and how available resources are deployed is the responsibility of individual Chief Officers and Police and Crime Commissioners, taking into account the specific local problems and demands with which they are faced. The Police are operationally independent and they will investigate each case according to its individual merits.

This Government takes road safety seriously. We are committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads. We are considering a range of policies under the new Road Safety Strategy; the first for ten years. This includes the case for changing the motoring offences. We are considering concerns raised by campaigns, Parliamentarians and bereaved families that Ministers have met.

The Government intends to publish the Road Safety Strategy by the end of the year.