Part IV General and supplementary
Chapter I General
F171Access to driver licensing information
(1)
The Secretary of State may in accordance with this section make driver licensing information available for use by authorised persons for purposes relating to policing or law enforcement.
(2)
The Secretary of State must in regulations made for the purposes of this section (“driver information regulations”) make provision about the making available of driver licensing information under this section.
(3)
Driver information regulations must specify the circumstances in which information may be made available under this section.
(4)
Driver information regulations may in particular make provision—
(a)
specifying conditions that must be met for a person to be (or remain) authorised to receive information under this section;
(b)
specifying conditions that must be met before information may be made available under this section;
(c)
imposing requirements relating to the receipt and use of information made available under this section;
(d)
restricting the kind of information that may be made available to, or the purposes for which information may be used by, specified descriptions of authorised persons;
(e)
about the purposes for which, and the circumstances in which, information made available under this section may be further disclosed (including provision about the persons to whom it may be disclosed).
(5)
Before making driver information regulations, the Secretary of State must consult—
(a)
the Scottish Ministers,
(b)
the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland,
(c)
the National Police Chiefs’ Council,
(d)
such persons as appear to the Secretary of State to represent the views of police and crime commissioners, and
(e)
such other persons as the Secretary of State considers appropriate.
(6)
The requirement in subsection (5) may be satisfied by consultation carried out wholly or partly before this section comes into force.
(7)
The Secretary of State may not make driver information regulations in relation to Northern Ireland authorised persons without the consent of the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland.
(8)
“Northern Ireland authorised persons” means authorised persons who—
(a)
are under the direction and control of—
(i)
the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland,
(ii)
the Belfast Harbour Commissioners, or
(iii)
Belfast International Airport Limited, or
(b)
are officers of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland.
(9)
In this section—
“authorised person” has the meaning given in section 71A;
“driver licensing information” means any information held, in any form, by the Secretary of State for the purposes of Part 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988.