DVLA to sell driver and vehicle data to private sector

The UK's Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is looking to boost profits by selling data products and reports to the private sector, based on information held in its databases.

The data will be sold in DVLA-branded reports but will be anonymised in order to comply with data protection laws.

The DVLA is currently looking for at least one IT partner to provide support to develop and generate customised reports under the DVLA brand. But the database and any resultant reports will be retained under sole DVLA ownership and will not be available to the technology supplier for any other use.

The project is part of plans for the DVLA to make more money out of the information it holds.

A DVLA tender notice said: "The marketplace is asking for more uses of DVLA data to provide information but for legislative reasons we are unable to release those data sets in their raw form to our data customers, potential customers and agents."

The DVLA already offers vehicle data information through private sector companies including Carwatch and Experian but said the new DVLA-branded products will not compete with these.

The IT partner will be expected to bear the majority of risk and investment costs in return for a greater proportional share of any income generated. Services it will need to provide include setting up and hosting a DVLA database, data analysis software, producing data reports, training staff, consulting and marketing.

The contract is expected to be awarded for two years with the option of a one-year extension.