dukest 0 Posted May 15, 2007 good on ya Jim, thats such a bs excuse to get out of a request. i can't imagine even 20% of FOI requests are available at the click of a mouse, they should expect to do the tiniest bit of work otherwise the whole thing is a farce! actually, now that i've put it like that.... :roll: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jim 2 Posted May 15, 2007 Well, surely they're going to get requests like this on a regular basis. Do they not have some sort of data warehouse where this kind of information can be extracted fairly easily? I worked for an educational initiative under the government until recently and know that we could extract information of any type from our database of students (of 120,000+ members, parents, professionals) in a few clicks. I appreciate that there are considerably more cars in there but with big powerful SQL servers we have these days, the principle is the same.. it'd just take 1 minute to run rather than 5 seconds or something ;) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
belfastfumanchu 0 Posted May 15, 2007 Maybe in a few years when we all have microchip thingys in our cars for the insurance companies to track our mileage it will easier to find out how many C's there are. Maybe. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vwdeviant 0 Posted May 15, 2007 unless of course they have a really, really inefficient setup. Yup that's why I'm a month and half without my V5 for a simple address change... and a friend of mine sent her V5 back 3 times to get them to spell SMITH correct for christsakes! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Toad 0 Posted May 15, 2007 unless of course they have a really, really inefficient setup. Yup that's why I'm a month and half without my V5 for a simple address change... and a friend of mine sent her V5 back 3 times to get them to spell SMITH correct for christsakes! I'd actually blame that on an error between the chair and the keyboard. They will have massively powerful servers running and backing up all of the information, otherwise it just wouldn't work. I reckon I could write the SQL to run in query analyser in about oooh , this long; SELECT COUNT FROM table WHERE MAKE = 'Volkswagen' AND MODEL = 'Corrado' AND STATUS = 'Taxed' See... Easy. They must have a shiny front end for creating queries anyway. The company I work for has a nice query builder for when you build custom tables. It can't be that different. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jim 2 Posted May 15, 2007 Exactly what i'm talking about Toad. This is why I think its a fob off! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Yandards 0 Posted May 15, 2007 Sounds like crapola to me Jim, I can't see why the can not pull this information as I believe it has been done for a number of classic car clubs. Mind you the DVLA system may only be able to extract owner, reg no, MOT and tax related details from the system - it is a government one after all :/ Might be worth some extra digging in the classic car end of the market to see what has happended as with regard to them. Aha, a brief bit of random digging found this: PART V DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION Disclosure of registration and licensing particulars 27. - (1) The Secretary of State may make any particulars contained in the register available for use - (a) by a local authority for any purpose connected with the investigation of an offence or of a decriminalised parking contravention; (b) by a chief officer of police; © by a member of the Police Service of Northern Ireland; (d) by an officer of Customs and Excise in Northern Ireland; or (e) by any person who can show to the satisfaction of the Secretary of State that he has reasonable cause for wanting the particulars to be made available to him. (2) Particulars may be provided to such a person as is mentioned in paragraph (1)(e) on payment of such fee, if any, of such amount as appears to the Secretary of State reasonable in the circumstances of the case. Seems to me that would cover the release of the vehicle mark and model.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
corozin 0 Posted May 16, 2007 Let's see... SELECT Count(VEHICLE_MODELS.Model) AS CountOfModel FROM VEHICLE_MODELS HAVING (((Count(VEHICLE_MODELS.Model))="Corrado")); Now how hard can that be? Oh.. I forgot it's the IT Department at the DVLA we're dealing with here... Seriously though, there is no reason at all why the number of registered vehicles of a particular make/model should be refused under a FOI enquiry as no personal or commerical information is involved in that. You could always complain to the FOI Commissioner Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jim 2 Posted May 16, 2007 Will wait and see what my flatmate comes back with from his solicitor co-workers but will pursue this, so don't worry :) Got a bee in my bonnet now ;) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mrbeige 0 Posted May 16, 2007 Will wait and see what my flatmate comes back with from his solicitor co-workers but will pursue this, so don't worry :) Got a bee in my bonnet now ;) Good lad. I would imagine that the DVLA just can't be arsed, and probably want to see how far you'll go to get the info. Good luck anyway, and good skills 8) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vwdeviant 0 Posted May 16, 2007 Got a bee in my bonnet now ;) :lol: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jim 2 Posted May 16, 2007 Now I know what its like when people take your thread off topic. Clear off you lot :) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
A1 VR6 0 Posted May 16, 2007 Sorry Jim, I,ll consider myself modded :( But seriously it would be great if we could get this info. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Supercharged 2 Posted May 16, 2007 Jim - just ring them up, they were pretty helpful when I asked about oil burning Corrado's Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jim 2 Posted May 16, 2007 I don't think you an get that kind of information over the phone mate. Willing to give it a go but think it'll be a dead end.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dinkus 10 Posted May 17, 2007 Now I know what its like when people take your thread off topic. Clear off you lot :) Sorry sir. Discussion of idiots moved Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kevin Bacon 5 Posted May 17, 2007 Well that's a big sack of mouldy economy ham there Jim, but cheers for battling in vain with them for our benefit. When your next Tax disc reminder drops onto the door mat, send a letter back saying it will take £367.34p in resources to raise a personal T456EJ request and therefore you will not be fulfilling their request. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Yandards 0 Posted May 17, 2007 Well that's a big sack of mouldy economy ham there Jim, but cheers for battling in vain with them for our benefit. When your next Tax disc reminder drops onto the door mat, send a letter back saying it will take £367.34p in resources to raise a personal T456EJ request and therefore you will not be fulfilling their request. If only.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jim 2 Posted May 18, 2007 Progress.. email from my flatmate this morning: One of the solicitors had a look at your DVLA letter the other day, his initial impression is that it seems a bit odd, because it doesn't make sense for them to refuse to provide the data, and he realises that their systems must surely be capable of providing a number of VW Corrados. He said he's going to talk to one of the solicitors that does F.O.I. stuff to get a better response. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
craigowl 0 Posted May 18, 2007 Well done, Jim. A few years ago, a government department costed the small amounts of data the public regularly asked for as a few pence. Trouble was, it was not a free public service and a handling charge would have to be added as the data came from a computer database. Minimum handling charge was at least £150 plus VAT. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites