Local Transport Bill [HL]

My Lords, I hope that I can answer the noble Lord’s concerns, and I am grateful to him for giving me the opportunity to do so by tabling this amendment. As the noble Lord indicated, Clause 111(2) allows information that the Welsh Ministers receive in connection with their charging scheme to be passed on, "““to any person with whom the Welsh Ministers have entered into charging scheme arrangements””." Under Clause 111(3), that information can be disclosed to any other person, as the noble Lord pointed out, but in both cases the information can only be disclosed for, or in connection with the, "““Welsh trunk road charging scheme””." It is important that the person who enters into arrangements with the Welsh Ministers can disclose that information to their sub-contractors—the exact point picked up by the noble Lord. Large projects often involve a large number of organisations that are not necessarily directly employed by the scheme owner; they should have access to the information necessary to run the scheme effectively. I also reiterate the important safeguard that this information can only be disclosed to people for or in connection with the road charging scheme. All disclosure of information would have to be in accordance with existing legislation; as the noble Lord highlighted, that includes the Data Protection Act 1998. On Amendment No. 119F, Clause 111(4) allows the Secretary of State to charge a reasonable fee for supplying information to the Welsh Ministers. The noble Lord raised an important question there; the provision has been included because of the particular role of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. The information that it holds on driver and vehicle registration is needed to properly cost and model road pricing schemes before they are implemented and to ensure that the enforcement process can work effectively. If such a scheme were to come into existence, it would actually be an ongoing service that the DVLA would need to provide. As such, I am sure that noble Lords can understand that the DVLA would need to be in a position to make a charge for that. If the DVLA supplies that information to the Welsh Ministers, it is reasonable to expect those Ministers to contribute to the administrative costs of providing such information. The DVLA will incur costs both in connection with the initial set-up and the subsequent operation of the scheme, which the Welsh Ministers could take into account when developing the business case for any trunk road pricing scheme. The noble Lord asked about local authorities. It is certainly the policy intention behind the drafting of this Bill that, where local authorities and the Welsh Assembly work in partnership, such information-sharing as was going on would be mutual. There would be mutual costs either way, so the intention to create a power in the Bill is not a duty. The Secretary of State does not have to provide this information, but the Bill makes it possible so that the DVLA would not be put in an impossible position by a potential scheme in providing a service whose costs it could not cover. The Government have a clear strategy on road charging, and respecting privacy is a central consideration of that; I turn, therefore, to Amendment No. 119G. The Government have published guidance to local authorities bidding for transport innovation fund money that sets out our approach to data protection. Within that guidance, we state that local authorities must ensure that information is gathered and managed respecting the Data Protection Act—that is absolutely vital. The Welsh Assembly Government must also comply with the Data Protection Act, and we see no reason why a scheme of theirs would be outside the confines of that Act. Therefore, the Data Protection Act’s principles as set out in Schedule 1 will apply to the processing of personal data in accordance with Clause 111. While I believe that the noble Lord’s amendment is unnecessary, he has raised an issue that we did not talk about in Committee. I appreciate his concerns and his giving me the opportunity to put these important issues on the record. I hope that, with that, he can withdraw his amendment.