Persistent evaders Protecting the lawful motorist The National Persistent Evader Database launched last month. Louise Parfitt chats to founder Alan Wood about why it is needed, the long journey to get here, and why it matters now more than ever What is the National Persistent Evader Database (NPED)? At its most basic, it is a database holding information about offending vehicles that have outstanding penalty charge notices (PCNs), and/ or do not have a valid MOT or insurance, or are not registered with the DVLA. But then it grows: it becomes an agency to deal with these vehicles, a provider of intelligence to the police, a key lobbying voice for new legislation to give local authorities the tools they need to deal with these vehicles. NPED even has its own charitable arm, NPED Xtra, that will be looking to support local colleges and road-safety charities. Why is it needed? Around 70 per cent of all warrants issued under the Traffic Management Act for unpaid parking charges get written off. For some councils, that could represent more than half a million pounds a year to fund much-needed services. We have to reduce that pot of misery and stop the sausagefactory churn of just writing things off and letting these vehicles slip through the net. Where did the idea come from? NPED is born of more than 15 years research that started out as bold curiosity, became an all-encompassing hobby, and has developed into a business. As an enforcement agent recovering debts for local authorities, I was coming up against motorists who had multiple parking fines. I started wondering if there was a correlation between this and other non-compliant motorist behaviours: did they have an MOT, tax and insurance? Thats where my research started, and it snowballed from there. I gathered reams of evidence that showed persistent evaders are on the rise, and there is a direct link to other forms of non-compliance. With the support of the BPA, I got the attention of government, and was invited to present my findings to two parliamentary roundtables with some key stakeholders, including representatives from the Department for Transport, the police, and Highways England (now National Highways). The next question was: if these vehicles have multiple outstanding parking charges, and if they are non-compliant for other data sets, what percentage of them are directly linked to criminal behaviour and anti-social behaviour? That led to another piece of research, with a small constabulary, that showed 60 per cent of persistent evader vehicles have direct links to criminal activity. How is NPED funded? Realistically, this is going to cost a huge amount to get to national scale. But it is a game changer: 36 PN June 2023 pp36-37 NPED.indd 36 23/05/2023 11:58