Numbers of Vehicles with False Registration Plates 2018 to 2022
Publication Number: 1525
FOI Number: 18621
Disclosure:
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties on public authorities:
Unless exemptions apply, the first duty (at Section 1(1)(a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held.
The second duty (at Section 1(1)(b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.
However, where exemptions are relied upon (Section 17 of FOIA), there is a requirement to provide the applicant with an explanation either:
- a) stating the fact
- b) detailing the exemption(s) in question and
- c) why the exemption applies (if not apparent).
Information Request
Under the ' Freedom Of Information Act' , (The ACT) please detail the numbers of Fines Issued to vehicles within Essex Police Patrol Area, driving with False or Altered Registration Plates in the year(s)
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
FOI Duty
First Duty – Essex Police holds some of the information relating to your request
Second Duty – See below
Fact - It is not possible to extract and verify all the data in your request
Exemption - Section 12(1)
Refusal - Section 17(5) of FOIA
Reasoning -
Essex Police are unable to report on the number of road users that have been fined for driving with ‘false’ or ‘altered’ vehicle registration number plates as this is information held by HM Courts & Tribunals Services (HMCTS) who hold data on prosecutions, trials and convictions. This question would entail manually extracting the requested data, manually searching each relevant offence record, cross referring on the investigation file as the process of referring to the CPS will be contained within each file and then the Police National Computer (PNC) to establish the outcome and whether the case resulted in a trial and a fine being issued. To do so would exceed the time and cost limits of an FOI request.
Also, Essex Police are unable to report on the numbers of recorded offences of literally driving with ‘false’ or ‘altered’ vehicle registration number plates as these are not specific offences.
Duty to assist – When refusing a request on cost (Section 12(1)/12(2), outside of the act and in effort to assist we can provide the following
Essex Police can however, report as follows:
Caveat: The following data is correct as at 25 May 2023
Numbers of Notices of Intended Prosecution issued for Vehicle Registration Mark related offences – 2018 to 2022
|
Offence Type |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
Grand Total |
|
Drive a vehicle when the registration mark fails to conform with regulations |
282 |
405 |
358 |
504 |
310 |
1859 |
|
Drive a vehicle and trailer with no registration plate - registered before 1/10/38 |
4 |
3 |
1 |
11 |
5 |
24 |
|
Drive a vehicle when the registration mark fails to conform with regulations |
|
|
20 |
20 |
||
|
Drive a vehicle with registration mark obscured / indistinguishable |
42 |
59 |
66 |
55 |
49 |
271 |
|
Drive vehicle no front registration plate - registered after 30/09/38 |
67 |
87 |
80 |
121 |
114 |
469 |
|
Keep a vehicle when registration mark fails to conform with the regulations |
21 |
17 |
14 |
50 |
30 |
132 |
|
Keep a vehicle with registration mark obscured |
17 |
16 |
17 |
27 |
17 |
94 |
|
Keep vehicle and trailer no rear registration plate - registered after 09/38 |
3 |
7 |
4 |
11 |
5 |
30 |
|
Keep vehicle no front registration plate - registered after 30/09/38 |
25 |
8 |
4 |
14 |
2 |
53 |
|
Keep vehicle no rear registration plate - registered after 30/09/38 |
4 |
9 |
8 |
2 |
1 |
24 |
|
Grand Total |
465 |
611 |
552 |
795 |
553 |
2976 |
Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete. However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries. Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies. Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data.
The following articles available via our publication scheme may also be of interest:
You may wish to contact the HMCTS to see if they can provide information on the numbers of fines issued for Vehicle Registration Mark related offences:
HM Courts & Tribunals Service - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)