Rochdale MEP launches investigation into local car scrapping chaos

Date published: 04/09/2006

A Rochdale Euro-MP has asked the European Commission to investigate claims that arrangements to ensure the safe treatment of the two million old cars scrapped in Britain each year are in chaos.
 
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) at Swansea has been accused of flouting a new law intended to raise environmental standards and encourage recycling.
 
And local MEP Chris Davies, the Liberal Democrat environment spokesman in the European Parliament, warns that millions of car owners are placing themselves at risk of prosecution for failing to obtain a Certificate of Destruction from legitimate vehicle dismantlers in accordance with new EU rules.
 
The End-of-Life Vehicles Directive, which became UK law in 2003, requires potential contaminants such as oil, brake fluid, tyres and airbags to be removed from cars before they are scrapped.  Old cars must be taken to one of 1,200 Authorised Treatment Facilities (ATF) licensed by the Environment Agency.  A Certificate of Destruction should be issued to prove that the vehicle has been scrapped and road tax is no longer due.
 
But the DVLA is accused of maintaining a loophole that allows huge numbers of drivers and vehicle dismantlers to ignore the anti-pollution rules.  Car owners can claim that they have scrapped the car themselves simply by ticking a box on their vehicle registration document.
 
With only 500,000 Certificates of Destruction expected to be issued this year, latest figures suggest that as many as 1.5 million old cars will instead be taken apart, piece by piece, by their last owners - a situation described by Euro-MP Chris Davies as "ludicrously out of touch with the reality".
 
He claims that the DVLA is "out of control", has refused to amend its procedures to meet the new legal requirements, and is failing even to provide basic information to vehicle owners about the procedure to follow.
 
Mr Davies commented: ""If car owners are not issued with a CoD they cannot be sure the vehicle dismantler has been properly registered, that their car will be dismantled safely, or that the environment will be protected.
 
"If their car is in fact not scrapped but sold and driven on the road they could be liable for an £80 road tax fine after two weeks, with a further £1000 penalty if the car is driven untaxed.  They would also have to pick up the tab for any parking or speeding fines incurred while someone else is driving the vehicle."

"I contacted the DVLA Helpline and asked for details about how to scrap an old car.  The reply did not even mention Certificates of Destruction, yet the law has been in place for more than three years.
 
"Behind the scenes I know that officials at the Department of Trade and Industry are tearing their hair out at the failure of DVLA to amend its procedures.  This is not an example of joined-up Government.  The agency is out of control. 
 
Mr Davies has sent a formal notice to the European Commission asking them to commence legal proceedings against Britain for an infringement of EU law.