Written questions by Coombes.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of updating the guidance entitled Taxi and private hire vehicle licensing best practice guidance for licensing authorities in England, published on 17 November 2023, to include guidance on compliance with registration plate regulations.

It is an offence for any vehicle to display a vehicle registration number plate that does not comply with the relevant regulations. Work is ongoing to quantify the number of illegal plates that may be in circulation on our roads, which will include taxis and private hire vehicles. The evidence gathered will be considered when evaluating potential future action, such as amending the best practice guidance, that may be taken to address this issue.

What steps he is taking with National Trading Standards to tackle the sale of ghost number plates.

National Trading Standards (NTS) are working with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), local authorities and the police to address the supply and use of modified number plates. The evidence gathered following a multi-agency investigation by the DVLA, the National Trading Standards Intelligence Team and police forces across the UK will be considered by the NTS National Tasking Group when evaluating potential future action to address this issue.

What her planned timeframe is for publishing a road safety strategy.

This Government treats road safety with the utmost seriousness, and we are committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads. My Department is developing the first road safety strategy in over a decade, and will set out more details in due course.

Whether she is taking steps to ensure that all schools in Sandwell are listing teaching jobs with a (a) main and (b) upper pay scale.

For maintained schools, the school teachers’ pay and conditions document (STPCD) sets out which pay range would be appropriate for any teaching role advertised in England, including Sandwell, and includes the main and upper pay ranges. The document is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-teachers-pay-and-conditions.Non-maintained schools, including academies and free schools, are responsible for determining the pay and conditions of their staff. Such schools are therefore not currently obliged to follow the statutory arrangements set out in the STPCD, although they may still choose to do so if they wish.However, through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, the department will require academies to have regard to the STPCD, ensuring an established starting point for all state schools while giving confidence that existing or future changes which benefit teachers and pupils, will be able to continue.Taken together, the Bill measures and the changes we make through secondary legislation following this Bill will create a pay floor with no ceiling, ensuring all state school teachers can rely on a core pay offer and all schools can innovate to attract and retain the best teachers.For either maintained or academy schools, it would be for the individual school to determine for themselves, when advertising vacant posts, whether the requirements of the post are more suited to the main or upper pay range, depending on the school’s budget and the range of experience and skills that applying candidates demonstrate.

What assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of recent trends in levels of police (a) time and (b) resources used to investigate Automatic Number Plate Recognition camera mis-reads.

A total of £85.45 million has been provided for maintaining and improving national Automatic Number Plate Recognition systems in the last three years.ANPR technology is used for law enforcement purposes, to help detect, deter and disrupt criminality at a local, force, regional and national level.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of regulations governing the use of ghost number plates..

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is working with the National Police Chiefs Council, various police forces and Trading Standards in relation to the supply and use of modified number plates, including those commonly known as ‘ghost plates’. The police are responsible for on road enforcement of existing number plate offences. It is already an offence to display a vehicle registration number that does not comply with the relevant regulations. Work is ongoing to quantify the number of illegal plates that may be in circulation. The evidence gathered will be considered when evaluating potential future action that may be taken to address this issue.

If she will take steps to tackle the use of ghost number plates on public highways.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is working with the National Police Chiefs Council, various police forces and Trading Standards in relation to the supply and use of modified number plates, including those commonly known as ‘ghost plates’. The police are responsible for on road enforcement of existing number plate offences. It is already an offence to display a vehicle registration number that does not comply with the relevant regulations. Work is ongoing to quantify the number of illegal plates that may be in circulation. The evidence gathered will be considered when evaluating potential future action that may be taken to address this issue.

What discussions she has had with taxi licensing authorities on enforcement on illegal stealth number plates.

We are aware of the issue of ghost plates being used on vehicles, including taxis and private hire vehicles. We would expect licensing authorities to work with the police to address this.

If she will make an estimate of the number of ghost plates in circulation.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council, various police forces and Trading Standards in relation to the supply and use of illegal number plates as well as number plates with raised characters, commonly known as ‘4D plates’. Some 4D plates can also be described as ‘ghost’ plates where the characters are constructed from materials that are unable to be read by infrared Automatic Number Plate Recognition systems. Work is currently ongoing to quantify the number of illegal plates that may be in circulation, including ‘ghost’ plates.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing legislation to prevent the sale of novelty number plates.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), various police forces and Trading Standards in relation to the supply and use of illegal number plates as well as number plates with raised characters, commonly known as ‘4D plates’. Some 4D plates can also be described as ‘ghost’ plates where the characters are constructed from materials that are unable to be read by infrared Automatic Number Plate Recognition systems. Work is currently ongoing to quantify the number of illegal plates that may be in circulation.It is already an offence to sell number plates that do not meet the requirements of the relevant legislation. That offence is punishable by a fine of up to £2,500. The DVLA works with the police and Trading Standards to help prosecute suppliers found to be operating outside of the law. Number plates are currently supplied by private businesses who are required to be registered with the DVLA. Suppliers who fail to request proof of identification or entitlement to the registration number can be subject to enforcement action, including fines and removal from the Register of Number Plate Suppliers via a court order.

What discussions her Department has had with the DVLA on 4D number plates.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), various police forces and Trading Standards in relation to the supply and use of illegal number plates as well as number plates with raised characters, commonly known as ‘4D plates’. Some 4D plates can also be described as ‘ghost’ plates where the characters are constructed from materials that are unable to be read by infrared Automatic Number Plate Recognition systems. Work is currently ongoing to quantify the number of illegal plates that may be in circulation.It is already an offence to sell number plates that do not meet the requirements of the relevant legislation. That offence is punishable by a fine of up to £2,500. The DVLA works with the police and Trading Standards to help prosecute suppliers found to be operating outside of the law. Number plates are currently supplied by private businesses who are required to be registered with the DVLA. Suppliers who fail to request proof of identification or entitlement to the registration number can be subject to enforcement action, including fines and removal from the Register of Number Plate Suppliers via a court order.

What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the DVLA's Registered Number Plate Suppliers in preventing vehicle crime.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), various police forces and Trading Standards in relation to the supply and use of illegal number plates as well as number plates with raised characters, commonly known as ‘4D plates’. Some 4D plates can also be described as ‘ghost’ plates where the characters are constructed from materials that are unable to be read by infrared Automatic Number Plate Recognition systems. Work is currently ongoing to quantify the number of illegal plates that may be in circulation.It is already an offence to sell number plates that do not meet the requirements of the relevant legislation. That offence is punishable by a fine of up to £2,500. The DVLA works with the police and Trading Standards to help prosecute suppliers found to be operating outside of the law. Number plates are currently supplied by private businesses who are required to be registered with the DVLA. Suppliers who fail to request proof of identification or entitlement to the registration number can be subject to enforcement action, including fines and removal from the Register of Number Plate Suppliers via a court order.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the Automatic Number Plate Recognition camera system.

ANPR is a valuable tool to help the police tackle crime and keep the road safe.We keep the effectiveness of police and law enforcement use of ANPR under regular review, to ensure it remains a robust tool for identifying vehicles of interest to the police and drivers who break the law.

What estimate she has made of the number of vehicle number plate cloning offences in the last five years.

The Home Office does not hold information on the number of vehicle number plate cloning offences recorded by the police in England and Wales as this is included within the offence sub-code of ‘Fraud and forgery associated with registration and licensing documents’ offences.The table shows the total number of such offences recorded, from 2019/20 to the year ending September 2024.Table: the number of ‘Fraud, forgery etc. associated with registration and licensing documents’ offences recorded by the police in England and Wales1, 2019/20 to the year ending September 2024.YearOffences2019/2024472020/213762021/224192022/233622023/24393 Year ending September 2023373Year ending September 20244711. Humberside police are excluded from all years, as they have been unable to provide data to the Home Office Data Hub2. 2019/20 excludes Greater Manchester police, who were unable to provide data to the Home Office Data Hub for this period.

How many fixed penalty notices were issued for vehicle registration offences in each of the last three years.

The Home Office collects and publishes data on fixed penalty notices and other outcomes for motoring offences as part of its annual ‘Police Powers and Procedures: Roads policing’ statistical release. The latest data is available here Police powers and procedures: Roads policing, to December 2023 - GOV.UK and covers the calendar year ending December 2023.Data on the number of fixed penalty notices issued for vehicle registration offences for the last three years is covered under offence classification 810, “vehicle registration and excise licence offences”, and is provided in table FPN_03 of the motoring offences data tables, available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67506ce8d12a2dad3bc97ab4/FPN-other-motoring-offences-statistics-police-powers-procedures-year-ending-dec-23.ods

What discussions she has had with relevant stakeholders on tackling the use of modified number plates designed to evade detection by automatic number plate recognition cameras, also known as ghost plates.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is working with the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), various police forces and Trading Standards in relation to the supply and use of modified number plates, commonly known as ‘ghost plates’. One element of the work underway is to quantify the number of illegal plates that are in circulation. The evidence received will support further action to address this issue.

What discussions she has had with the DVLA on tackling the use of modified number plates designed to evade detection by automatic number plate recognition cameras, also known ghost plates.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is working with the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), various police forces and Trading Standards in relation to the supply and use of modified number plates, commonly known as ‘ghost plates’. One element of the work underway is to quantify the number of illegal plates that are in circulation. The evidence received will support further action to address this issue.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the use of modified number plates designed to evade detection by automatic number plate recognition cameras on levels of crime.

The cloning and defacing of number plates is illegal. We are working with the police, the DVLA and other partners to crack down on these crimes.We have begun work on a new Road Safety Strategy, the first in over a decade, which aims to reduce road deaths and prevent related crime.

What number and proportion of vehicle number plates were unreadable by automatic number plate recognition cameras in each of the last three years.

Data on the readability of ANPR reads is not collected or published.

What steps he is taking to increase the number of resident doctor training positions.

We are committed to training the staff we need to ensure that patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it. We will ensure that the number of medical specialty training places meets the demands of the National Health Service in the future. NHS England will work with stakeholders to ensure that any growth is sustainable and focused in the service areas where need is greatest. This summer we will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to build the transformed health service we will deliver over the next decade.