Series

Vehicle excise duty evasion statistics

This series brings together all documents relating to Vehicle excise duty evasion statistics

This series presents information on the numbers of unlicensed vehicles ‘in traffic’ and ‘in stock’, as well as their characteristics and the revenues lost through Vehicle Excise Duty evasion.

The Department’s estimates of Vehicle Excise Duty evasion are derived by directly observing registration marks from traffic at various sites around the country and comparing these with records held by the government licensing agencies (The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency and the Driver and Vehicle Agency (Northern Ireland).

See notes and guidance, the pre-release access list and technical information

Notes and guidance

The Department contributed to the roads policing operation V79, whose reports provides alternative estimates of both vehicle excise duty evasion and MOT non-compliance. The V79 operation involved police officers stopping vehicles at random on the road, and carrying out checks on a range of regulatory and documentary requirements for both the vehicle and its driver.

Any differences between figures published in V79 reports and those in this series are because of differences in methodology. However, it should be noted is that the V79 operation is based on a much smaller sample of vehicles, and its results are not treated as official statistics.

National Statistics

These statistics are National Statistics, and are currently being assessed by the United Kingdom Statistics Authority (UKSA). A final report is expected to be published in Summer 2011.