Preliminary National Indicators of Potential Weeding Impact

This is difficult to determine because we do not receive every theft notification and the UK’s LoS data is poor. There are several caveats to consider – read more here.

However, if the Home Office data is used to determine PNC notifications in a (financial) year and compared with the DVLA LoS ‘receipts’ for a (calendar) year, which is far from ideal, an indication can be determined.  The following DVLA VEHICLE data has been reviewed:

  • PSNI & Scottish constabularies have been excluded.  Whilst the DVLA disclosure includes these constabularies, the Home Office (H.O.) data does not, it relates to England & Wales.
  • The DVLA’s ‘not known’ constabulary category has been removed – the DVLA hold 1,415 such records for 2024.
  • The NCA (1 record) and NaVCIS (651 records) data have been removed – the H.O. Data does not include reference to these organisations.

A total of 44 constabularies data was reviewed; their Home Office records compared to the number of submissions the DVLA received from each in 2024.

The time periods used by each does not make for straightforward comparison however, the figures can be found here: 2024 LoS Submissions – Car Crime U.K.

In 2024, the DVLA received 95,589 ‘stolen’ vehicle notifications.

The Home Office statistics for the financial years, 2022/23, 2023/24 & 2024/25 convey an average of 126,810 vehicle theft reports.

DVLA totals are 32.66% lower than the Home Office totals (DVLA-denominator framing) i.e., Home Office totals are ~24.6% higher than DVLA totals.

The data for each constabulary was then considered to determine whether the 1/3rd difference was common – which could suggest a shared, consistent or plausible explanation for the anomaly.  However, the variation, the difference between Home Office data and that supplied to the DVLA provided widely differing figures:

  • Warwickshire police was the only constabulary whose LoS notifications to the DVLA exceeded those recorded by the Home Office.

Those with a discrepancy that exceeded 100% were:

 DVLA 2024H.O. averagedifference% difference
Merseyside Police1,0182,4901,472144.56%
Gwent Police3751,051676180.27%
Cleveland Police3651,074709194.34%
North Wales Police141418277196.69%
City of London Police113524218.18%
British Transport Police130528398305.90%