Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 section 46

Duty to give information

Section 46 imposes a legal obligation on vehicle keepers and other persons to provide information about the identity of drivers or keepers when a vehicle is alleged to have been used or kept on a road without the proper vehicle excise licence or nil licence.

• When a vehicle is alleged to have been used or kept on a road without proper vehicle excise duty or a nil licence, the person keeping the vehicle must, when formally required, provide information identifying the driver or the person who kept the vehicle on the road.
• Any other person must also provide whatever information they can that may help identify the driver or keeper, if formally required to do so by a chief officer of police or the Secretary of State.
• Where someone is alleged to have used a vehicle on a road without a proper licence or nil licence, that person must, if formally required, provide whatever information they can about who was keeping the vehicle at the time of the alleged offence.
• Failing to comply with any of these information requirements is a criminal offence punishable on summary conviction by a fine up to level 3 on the standard scale, although a vehicle keeper has a defence if they can show they did not know and could not reasonably have found out the identity of the person concerned.