ASA Adjudication on DVLA

Ad

A TV ad showed a house window and a man visible through it sitting in his living room at night. The voice-over stated "Why is he just sat there? He could do it now. He could phone. He could do it on his lap-top. I'd do it myself if I could!" The man's cat, to which the voice belonged, was then seen jumping on his car outside. A further voice-over stated "You can renew your car tax, quickly and easily, online or by phone". On-screen text stated "Direct.gov.uk/tax disc", gave a phone number, and stated "DVLA. Are you up to date?"

Issue

A viewer objected that the ad was misleading because he had been unable to renew his car tax online or by phone due to the date his insurance had started.

BCAP TV Code

Response

Delaney, Lund, Knox, Warren and Partners Ltd (DLKW) responded on behalf of the Central Office of Information (COI) and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). They said the purpose of the ad was to alert viewers to the fact that they could renew their car tax quickly and easily online or by phone through the Electronic Vehicle Licensing (EVL) service. They said many people were unaware that the transaction could be done through these channels as well as by post or in person at the Post Office. They said EVL worked by electronically checking with the Motor Insurance Database (MID) run by the Motor Insurers Information Service (MIIC) when a customer applied for a tax disc using the EVL phone line or website. They said the failure rates for tax disk renewal by EVL were very low.

DLKW explained there were a number of reasons why a driver might fail to complete EVL: for example, failures could be caused by invalid insurance details, insurance not held, or insurance details not available on the MID. They said that, if a customer's insurance policy had been recently renewed, updated or changed, their vehicle details might not have been updated yet on the MID, because the MID only recorded the expiry date of the current insurance period and once that current period ended, the new insurance period updated the database. Because insurance cover may have been agreed with an insurer a few weeks in advance of the expiry of the existing cover, the information would not necessarily be sent to the MID until policy expiry. They said the MID was controlled by the Motor Insurance Bureau (MIB) which was outside of the jurisdiction of the DVLA and it was the insurance company provider's responsibility to update the MID, and not the responsibility of the DVLA. They said drivers could check that their details were correct on the MID should they choose.

DLKW sent EVL data for the 12-month period before the ad was broadcast, which showed that over nineteen million people had attempted to renew their car tax by EVL over the year and around one and a half million had initially failed due to lack of insurance details on MID. However, they said many of those initial failures were later successful in the same calendar month, and only around 2% of people who had attempted to renew their car tax by EVL had ultimately failed to do so in the same calendar month in 2009.

DLKP said everything that was needed to complete the EVL process was clearly stated before entering the process online, and through the phone service where applicable, and nothing more was required to undertake the process online or by phone than was required to complete the process by post or at the Post Office.

Clearcast said the online EVL system relied on a third party to supply vehicle insurance data. They said the driver's insurers had to update the MIB, the organisation which supplied data to the DVLA system. They said that, from the information they had reviewed from the DVLA, they were satisfied that for the vast majority the service worked well as advertised. They said they had reviewed the EVL website before clearing the ad and that the site, then as now, made it clear what information was needed, including a valid insurance certificate. The site also advised users to check the MIB site if necessary. Clearcast said that, because that additional check would only need to be done in marginal cases, such as very recently renewed policies, they did not believe it negated the "quickly and easily" claim in the ad.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA acknowledged that the complainant had had difficulty with the system because of his insurance dates. However, we noted that the service had worked first time, "quickly and easily", for around eighteen million people between January and December 2009 and that most people had been able to renew their tax within the month. We noted the claim "You can renew your car tax, quickly and easily, online or by phone" was accurate for the majority of those using the service, and considered that those who could not do so were likely to understand that their particular circumstances might mean the service was not available to them. We concluded the claim was unlikely to mislead.

We investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1.1, 5.1.2, 5.1.3 (Misleading advertising) and 5.2.3 (Qualifications) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action required.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)