T Y N W A L D C O U R T

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1 T Y N W A L D C O U R T Q U A I Y L T I N V A A L SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL Douglas, Tuesday, 19th November 2013 Relating to Questions for Oral Answer 18. Reayrt ny Baie and Cummal Mooar Plans for services and buildings... 2 Relating to Questions for Written Answer 48. Automatic number plate recognition Statutory powers; data protection... 4 Relating to Order of the Day 6. Road Traffic Regulation Act 1985 Road Traffic Regulation (Fixed Penalty Offences) Order Road Traffic Act 1985 Road Traffic (Seizure, Retention and Disposal of Motor Vehicles) Regulations All published Official Reports can be found on the Tynwald website Papers/Hansards/Please select a year: Volume 131, No. 2 ISSN Published by the Office of the Clerk of Tynwald, Legislative Buildings, Finch Road, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 3PW. High Court of Tynwald, 2013

2 Isle of Man Government Rexitys Ellan VannIn De artment of Social Care Rheynn Kiarail y Theay From the Office of the Minister Hon Chris Robertshaw MHK Your Ref: Our Ref: CR/II 28th November 2013 All Tynwald Members sent via rs, Hon Chris Robertshaw MHK Minister for Social Care 4th Floor, Markwell House Market Street Douglas Isle of Man IM1 2RZ Tel: (01624) chris.robertshaw@gov.im Joi22,4 cdut Further to Question 18 at the 19th November 2013 sitting of Tynwald, I undertook to provide Honourable Members with details of the criteria in relation to room sizes in our residential care homes, I can confirm that the current rules that apply to room sizes are contained in the Adult Care Homes Minimum Standards 2013, which sit under the Regulation of Care Act These are available on the Government website at Standard 2 requires care homes to ensure that residents "are supported to set and carry out their activities and routines in suitable surroundings. The environment is conducive to people's well being and safety. People live in a home that is safe, warm clean and comfortable. People have access to the aids, equipment and facilities they need." The requirements for room sizes cover new-builds and existing care homes are contained within Standard 2.2: "Bedrooms have a minimum usable floor space of (in new builds) 12.5 square metres. In existing homes square metres. En-suites are at a minimum of 3.5 square metres and are provided in new builds". Reayrt Ny Baie has a usable floor space in each bedroom (excluding en-suite) of 9.5 square metres (En suite size is 1.75 square metres). Cummal Mooar has a usable floor space of 6 square metres in each bedroom. In both homes there is limited access to the aids and equipment residents need due to restricted space and room shape there is not enough space for walking frames, hoists etc to be manoeuvred safely. 2

3 As regards communal areas this is covered in Standard 2.4 : "Access to communal areas should be available at all times. Communal space provides, at a minimum, 3.9 square metres for each person living in the home". There are many more references to environmental factors within Standard 2 though the above extracts are the ones with reference to room sizes and measurements. Yours sincerely Hon Chris Robertshaw MHK Minister 2 3

4 - IN TYNWALD November 2013 FOR WRITTEN ANSWER 48 The Hon. Member for Garff (Mr Speaker) to ask the Minister for Infrastructure With respect to his Departments press release dated Friday, 8 November 2013 regarding the introduction of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) what the statutory powers are, including any Orders prescribing the system for evidential purposes, for the Department to collect data via Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems; what legal advice the Department has received with regard to compliance with the Data Protection Act; and if so if he will publish any such legal advice in Hansard; what discussions there have been with the Data Protection Supervisor regarding any such legal advice; and what other methods, such as Statutory Off Road Notifications, have been considered for reducing the number of untaxed and illegal vehicles in use on the public roads and why they were rejected? ANSWER As promised to Tynwald Members in response to Mr Speaker s point, raised on 19 th November 2013 in Tynwald Court, I set out the following information. I can advise that the Department routinely issues reminders to the registered keeper of a vehicle if their vehicle duty is not renewed. However, the Department has no knowledge as to whether vehicles are being used on the road unless physical checks are made. Previous manual studies have given indications that around 5% of vehicles on the road may not have paid vehicle duty and this represents approximately 600,000 of lost income. Non-payment of vehicle excise duty liable to be paid in respect of vehicles used on public roads is an offence under the Licensing and Registration of Vehicles Act 1985 The ANPR system has been developed by the Department and it is intended that it will be used by the Police with the sole intention of detecting non-payment of vehicle duty offences by cross-checking the recorded vehicle registration information as the Department s Driver Vehicle Admin System ( DVAS ). 1 4

5 I want to make it clear that this ANPR system does not in itself operate on the basis of having a live list of plates of interest which are then flagged for immediate follow-up; this ANPR system is intended to operate on a different footing to the ANPR systems typically operated by Police forces in the UK for crime detection purposes. The ANPR system is linked to an extracted record of the registration plates of all vehicles which DVAS has recorded as having duly paid the relevant fees i.e. a live list. This extracted record of the live and valid registration plates in itself contains no personal data i.e. data relating to living individuals. When a registration plate is recorded by the ANPR camera, the system performs a crosscheck against this extracted live DVAS list. When a registration plate is cross-checked and found not to be within the DVAS live list, that registration plate is transferred into a separate list generated for follow up action to be undertaken manually by DoI officers with reference to DVAS records containing the personal data relating to the last registered keeper of the vehicle. The aim of such follow up action is to secure payment of the duty, to the benefit of the public purse. Now taking the Honourable Member s questions in turn:- (a) what the statutory powers are, including any Orders prescribing the system for evidential purposes, for the Department to collect data via Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems; The Department maintains a Register of Motor Vehicles pursuant to Regulation 4 of The Licensing and Registration of Vehicles Regulations 2004 (SD 330/04) ( the Regulations ). The Regulations were made pursuant to sections 6(5), 10(4), 13 and 18(1) and (2) of the Licensing and Registration of Vehicles Act 1985 ( the Act ) and of all other enabling powers. Regulation 4 provides that the register of vehicles required to be kept by the Department may contain such particulars as the Department may direct and per Regulation 4(2) need not be kept in documentary form i.e. there is a clear implied power to hold the information in a computerised database. The Regulations make specific provision requiring the delivery of personal information relating to the owners of vehicles: see for example Regulations 8 and 9; this accords with various fair processing principles under section 2 and Schedule 2 of the Data Protection Act The release of information from the Register of Motor Vehicles is permitted within the terms of Regulation 22 of the Regulations. The Department is required to supply free of charge any particulars of the information within the register relating to the registration of vehicles (DVAS) if it receives a request from any body with equivalent responsibility for vehicle licensing within the British Isles or from any constable in any of those jurisdictions. This requirement to release information within the register would extend to personal data. 2 5

6 Pursuant to Regulation 22, the Police already routinely have access to DVAS which contains personal data relating to drivers and the licensed keepers of vehicles for the purposes of their law enforcement duties, including in relation to offences under the Act. The release of personal information held within the Register of Motor Vehicles is exempt from the non-disclosure principles enshrined in the Data Protection Act 2002, pursuant to section 25 and/or section 31(1) of that Act. No separate Order is required in relation to the proposed use of the ANPR camera and system as described above:- it merely automates what would otherwise be a laborious human process (recording the registration plates of passing vehicles and cross checking against the extracted list of live plates on DVAS to generate a follow-up list of registration plates not within DVAS); the Police already have right to access data (including personal data) under Regulation 22, but this is not what is proposed operationally. A Code of Practice has nevertheless been prepared relevant to the proposed use of the ANPR system and camera, including in relation to data retention. Operation of the ANPR system is not currently intended to be a stand-alone basis to evidence criminal proceedings before the Courts. It would be a matter for the Courts to be satisfied to the relevant standard the ANPR system provided a basis for conviction in the same way as speed detection equipment, breathalyser etc are required to be calibrated and working correctly. (b) what legal advice the Department has received with regard to compliance with the Data Protection Act; and if so & (c) if he will publish any such legal advice in Hansard; The specific legal advice the Department receives is privileged to the Department. The Attorney General s Chambers have confirmed that the Police have powers to carry out enforcement in relation to the Act and that the Department can work with the Police as proposed, in particular taking account of the information set out at (a) above and section 25 of the Data Protection Act 2002, relating to the processing of data for the purposes of detecting or processing crime and in connection with payment of the duty liable to be paid under the Act. As stated above, the proposed operation of this ANPR system does not involve the release of personal data from DVAS. (d) what discussions there have been with the Data Protection Supervisor regarding any such legal advice; and The Department has played a key role in developing the Code of Practice and has consulted with the Data Protection Supervisor in regard to its key principles. The Code of Practice has been developed to set down the purpose of the ANPR system and how it will be used to ensure that it complies with the Data Protection Act 2002, insofar as that Act is relevant. The fact that the equipment proposed to be used in the automated part of the enforcement process carries no information other than being a means of flagging the registration 3 6

7 numbers of vehicles known to have not paid vehicle duty means that that the Data Protection Act 2002 is of little if any relevance. Even were it the case that ANPR generated access to personal information within DVAS, sections 25 and/or 31 of the Data Protection Act 2002 would cover such situation. (e) what other methods, such as Statutory Off Road Notifications, have been considered for reducing the number of untaxed and illegal vehicles in use on the public roads and why they were rejected? The use of a Statutory Off Road Notice (SORN) system has been considered; however, this would not fully address the concern of unlicensed vehicles being used on the roads, as this system relies on owners making a declaration just as the current system relies on owners paying vehicle duty. Physical checks would still have to be made to ensure that vehicles registered as being off the road were not being used. A SORN system would also be expensive to administer, requiring owners of vehicles being kept off road to pay a fee for this service. Such a system was introduced in the UK and has not been successful in addressing the problem of untaxed vehicles. The UK has instead also made extensive use of ANPR to address the problem of untaxed vehicles. 4 7

8 isle of Man Government Reiligs Man V4eni.n. To All Tynwald Members infrastructure bun-troggalys Office of the Minister and Chief Executive Contact: Telephone: Fax: Our Ref: Date: Christine Wilson (01624) (01624) DCC/mh 12th November 2013 Dear Member The Road Traffic Regulation (Fixed Penalty Offences) Order 2013 November Tynwald I have been requested by Madam President for supplementary information regarding the "ACPO" table listed at Table 2 in the schedule to the above Order. The purpose of the "ACPO" table is to provide the police with a clear guide based on the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) recommendations regarding the upper limit for speeding offences before an offender is dealt with by the Court rather than by fixed penalty. The table clearly sets out what a police officer can do should a motorist be stopped for speeding and where the fixed penalty process is used to deal with the matter, and please remember a fixed penalty can only be issued if the driver accepts the charges By way of example, if a vehicle is stopped by the police in a 30 mph zone because the driver was travelling at a speed in excess of 50 mph, the police officer would automatically refer the driver through the relevant process to be prosecuted by the Court and the effect of the Table would be to preclude the use of a fixed penalty. The legislation would essentially always make speeding by such a margin a serious offence and as such the use of a fixed penalty would not be appropriate. If the vehicle was travelling at less than 49 mph in the same 30 mph zone, the police officer could utilise the fixed penalty method and if the driver agrees to this, can issue the points relevant to the speed at which he was travelling and a fine of 120. I trust you find this information useful and I will touch on the same detail in my speech when this item is presented to Tynwald later this month. Yours sincerely Hon D C Cretney MHK Minister Department of Infrastructure Sea Terminal Building, Douglas, 8 Isle of Man, IM1 2RF

9 Isle of Man Government Reilly. Ell., To All Tynwald Members infrastructure bun-troggalys Office of the Minister and Chief Executive Contact: Christine Wilson Telephone: (01624) Fax: (01624) Our Ref: DCC/mf Date: 8th November 2013 Dear Colleagues Vehicle Seizure Regulations With apologies for not having circulated this to Members earlier, I am pleased to supply the following additional information regarding the above. The purpose of the Seizure Regulations, the enabling powers for which were approved by Tynwald as part of the Highways and Traffic (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act 2012, is to provide the Police with another tool to use to address the problem of persistent offenders. It is totally permissive so that Police can use these powers if they need to but they are not forced or obliged to do so. Clearly there will be a cost for seizing and storing a vehicle but the Regulations contain provision for recovery of these costs, as directed by the Courts, including the option of recovering costs through disposal of the vehicle. Whilst it cannot be guaranteed that the initiative will be cost neutral it is anticipated that the initiative will provide an alternative mechanism for improving compliance which, if used appropriately, will ensure that offenders pay the costs. Whilst it is anticipated that the costs of this legislation will be neutral, the Department will review the matter once the practical implementation has been experienced. If the costs are not in balance then normal budget management would effectively require that the Regulations are not used further until they are revised. The Department of Infrastructure has an existing contractor for the removal of abandoned vehicles from the Highway. The Department already budgets for storage provision for this activity and has offered the Police use of this facility to minimise further recovery and storage costs. Therefore the only net additional cost to the Police or the Department of Infrastructure is that of removal, and the lowest fine imposed is nearly twice the basic cost of removal and could often be a significant multiple of that cost. On that basis it is likely that the costs of this initiative would be recovered by Government. In the wider sense the Department of Infrastructure estimates that at least 4% of vehicles are not displaying valid vehicle duty which reduces potential Government income by around 500k each year. The Department and the Police undertake significant enforcement; this has been expanded in recent years and there are plans to trial Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras to help recover the lost duty. For any enforcement to be effective the Authorities need to have an Department of Infrastructure Sea Terminal Building, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 2RF 9

10 ultimate sanction. Whilst most individuals will comply with reminders or minor enforcement sanctions, some have no intention of paying and it is important that the Authorities are able to take direct steps against this small minority, to prevent undermining of routine lower level enforcement work. This legislation establishes that ultimate sanction and as such it is likely that revenues from vehicle duty will be both protected and enhanced. It is difficult to quantify such provision in precise financial terms, however even a very small percentage has a significant financial benefit and will make a net contribution to Government income over and above the immediate direct costs mentioned in the paragraphs above. As well as the overall financial benefits, the proposal also reduces the likelihood of vehicles being used when uninsured and the use of vehicles by drivers whose licences have been revoked. There are some commercially sensitive costs pertaining to the vehicle removal contract which is regularly tendered; for that reason this note has been kept relatively general in reference to those. Nonetheless, I hope Members will appreciate that the original assertion made with regard to this legislation is accurate and that costs are recoverable. If Members are minded to support the proposals, I am willing to review this matter after 12 months practical experience and will undertake to do that, in conjunction with the Police. Yours sincerely Hon D C Cretney MHK Minister cc Chief Officers 10 page 2