Privacy Commissioner - Te Mana Matapono Matatapu

Skip to content

MoT/ MED Motor Vehicle Traders Sellers Programme

• Annual report
• Technical information
• System description
• Historical activity

Annual report

Purpose: To enable MED identify people who have sold more than six motor vehicles in a 12 month period and are not registered as motor vehicle traders.

Year commenced: 2003

Features: Data transferred quarterly by online transfer.

MoT disclosure to MED: MoT provides MED with the full name, date of birth and address of all individuals or entities that have sold more than six vehicles in a 12-month period.

MED disclosure to MoT: MED provides MoT with the full name, date of birth, address and trader unique identifier of new motor vehicle traders so that these traders are excluded from future programme runs.

2008/09 activity:

Match runs	4
Records received for matching	1,647
Individuals or entities of interest identified	600
Notices of adverse action sent	684[1]
Successful challenges - Entities registed under another name	6
- Entities: primary purpose not financial gain	393
Entities referred to the National Enforcement Unit	0
Registrations as a result of notices of adverse action	77

Compliance: Compliant 

Technical information

Information matching provision	Motor Vehicle Sales Act 2003, ss.122 and 123
Year authorised	2003
Programme type	Detecting illegal behaviour
Unique identifiers	Motor vehicle trader file number
On-line transfers	Yes

System description

The Ministry of Transport (MoT) provides MED with a quarterly SEEMail online transfer of a spreadsheet that includes all individuals or entities who have sold more than six vehicles in a 12 month period[2].

MED manually compares the MoT data with its Motor Vehicle Traders Register to identify unregistered individuals and companies. Before MED issues a s.103 notice to an individual[3] whom it believes should register as a motor vehicle trader, it requests the following additional information from MoT in relation to each vehicle:

• registration plate number
• VIN and chassis number
• details of sale/transfer of ownership (e.g. name and address of seller and buyer)
• odometer reading.

If, after the manual check and following evaluation of the additional information received, it appears that the individual or entity should be registered, MED issues a s.103 notice (notice of adverse action) requesting registration within 10 working days, or an explanation to the Registrar about why the individual or entity does not need to be registered. Failure to respond to the notice results in a referral to the Registrar's National Enforcement Unit for possible prosecution under the MVSA.

MED also access the spreadsheet containing the MoT data to conduct manual look-ups if a complaint is received. The person who performs the information matching programme is authorised to perform the look up on behalf of all other investigating staff. A privacy register is maintained to record details of each access to Customs data for complaints purposes, and a summary report of this activity is provided to this Office.

Historical activity

MED Privacy Register - Customs and MoT Data Accesses 2006-2008

	2006/07	2007/08
Number of ad hoc searches made  - Customs data  - MoT data	6 47	0 10
Ad hoc searches that resulted in matching a complaints file record	1	0
Number of s.103 notices sent	0	0

---

[1] This includes 84 second notices that were sent during the reporting period.
[2] MoT's data transfer to MED excludes those individuals or entities already registered as Motor Vehicle Traders. MED provide MoT with monthly updates from the Motor Vehicle Traders Register so that MoT's records of registered traders are kept up to date.
[3] For administrative convenience, and for the benefit of corporate persons, a notice is sent to the matched entity whether they are an individual or a corporate body such as a company or a trust. The statistics reported for this match include both individuals and other entities.