1. (1) In this Act—

“Agreement” means Agreement with Iceland and Norway;

“Agreement with Iceland and Norway” means the Agreement between the European Union and Iceland and Norway on the application of certain provisions of the Council Decision and the Implementing Council Decision and the Annex thereto, done at Stockholm on 26 November 2009 and at Brussels on 30 November 2009³;

“authorised officer” means a person who is appointed under section 10(1) to be an authorised officer for vehicle registration data for the purpose of this Act;

“automated search” means direct on-line access to the automated files of another body where the response to the search is fully automated;

“blocking”, in relation to personal data, means the marking of stored personal data with the aim of limiting their processing in the future;

F1[“Council Decision” means Council Decision 2008/615/JHA of 23 June 2008⁴ on the stepping up of cross-border cooperation, particularly in combating terrorism and cross-border crime, as amended by the Prüm II Regulation;]

“data controller” means a person who, either alone or with others, controls the contents and use of personal data;

“data protection authority”, in relation to a designated state, means the authority in that designated state that is designated by that designated state to be the independent data protection authority of that designated state for the purposes of a F1[European Union instrument, the Agreement or the Trade and Cooperation Agreement];

“data subject” means an individual who is the subject of personal data;

F1[“designated state” means a Members State (other than the State), Iceland, Norway or the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland;]

F1[“European Union instrument, the Agreement or the Trade and Cooperation Agreement” means the Council Decision, the Implementing Council Decision, the Agreement or the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, or provisions of any of them, insofar as they concern cooperation in relation to —

(a) automated searching of vehicle registration data, and

(b) the exchange of such data,

by or between authorities which are responsible for the prevention, detection and investigation of criminal offences in the State and designated states under the said instruments or agreements;]

F1[“Implementing Council Decision” means Council Decision 2008/616/JHA of 23 June 2008⁵ on the implementation of Decision 2008/615/JHA on the stepping up of cross-border cooperation, particularly in combating terrorism and cross-border crime, as amended by the Prüm II Regulation]

“individual case” means the investigation or prosecution of an offence or offences arising from a single event, incident or circumstances, but includes a case where a search for more than one vehicle or owner or operator of a vehicle is required;

“Minister” means Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport;

“national contact point” means, in relation to a F1[European Union instrument, the Agreement or the Trade and Cooperation Agreement]—

(a) in the case of the State, the Minister, and

(b) in the case of a designated state, the authority or person designated by that state as its national contact point;

“National Vehicle and Driver File” means records established and maintained by the Minister under section 60 (as amended by section 86 of the Finance Act 1994) of the Finance Act 1993;

“personal data” means data relating to an individual who can be identified either from the data or from the data in conjunction with other information in the possession of a data controller;

“processing”, in relation to personal data, means any operation or set of operations which is performed upon personal data, whether or not by automatic means, such as collection, recording, organisation, storage, adaptation or alteration, sorting, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by supply, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment, combination, blocking, erasure or destruction of data and includes the sending or receiving of a receipt of a notification under section 3(3) or 4(2);

F2[“Prüm II Regulation” means Regulation (EU) 2024/982 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 March 2024⁶ on the automated search and exchange of data for police cooperation, and amending Council Decisions 2008/615/JHA and 2008/616/JHA and Regulations (EU) 2018/1726, (EU) No 2019/817 and (EU) 2019/818 of the European Parliament and of the Council;]

“registration number” means—

(a) in the case of a vehicle registered in the State under section 131 (as amended by section 102 of the Finance Act 2003) of the Finance Act 1992, the identification number assigned to the vehicle under subsection (5) of that section, and

(b) in the case of a vehicle registered in a designated state, the identification number assigned to the vehicle by that state;

F2[“Trade and Cooperation Agreement” means the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part, done at Brussels and London on 30 December 2020¹, as approved by Council Decision (EU) 2021/689 of 29 April 2021², and as given further effect by the unilateral declaration of the European Union attached to Council Decision (EU) 2026/1069 of 12 May 2026³;]

“vehicle registration data” means—

(a) data relating to owners and operators of vehicles, and

(b) data relating to vehicles,

being—

(i) in the case of the State, data held in the National Vehicle and Driver File, and

(ii) in the case of a designated state, data held on its national vehicle registration database by whatever name called and however it is organised;

“VIN”, in relation to a vehicle, means the vehicle identification number, that is to say, the fixed combination of characters assigned to a vehicle by the manufacturer, marked on the manufacturer’s plate and on the chassis, frame or other similar structure of the vehicle.

(2) A word or expression that is used in this Act and also in a F1[European Union instrument, the Agreement or Title II of Part Three of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement] has, unless the context otherwise requires, the same meaning in this Act as it has in the F1[European Union instrument, the Agreement or Title II of Part Three of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement].