In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the Home Office provided their exchanges with the National Audit Office (NAO that gave rise to the NAO letter of 25/06/2026
The disclosure, in its original form, can be found here, the text reads as follows:
1. document (?) undated, no headers
Hello [redaction]
Thank you for your time just now, Please find below a summary of the process for Stolen Vehicles between the DVLA and the PNC (Police National Computer),
A vehicle is reported as stolen to a local force and a crime reference is normally provided to the citizen who has reported the vehicle as stolen.
For the vehicle to be circulated nationally, a user would identify the vehicle record on the PNC and add a LOS (Stolen Report) to the record containing details of the theft including dates, timings and location, captured as structured free text. Vehicle LOS reports can then have two states:
This LOS report is initially in a state of unconfirmed enabling Officers to conduct due diligence before confirming the theft. This has an initial weed date of 6 weeks from the date of entry.
A separate action on the PNC changes the status of the report to confirmed and this extends the weed date to 6 years from the date of entry
This stolen report is then available to be viewed by users of the PNC vehicles application, but the vehicle record and report are also placed on the Vehicles of Interest (VOI) list which is shared with National ANPR services for reactive action to be taken.
As well as being available to direct users of the PNC vehicles application, the VE603J – VEHICLE THEFT/RECOVERY NOTIFICATIONS file is distributed daily to a number of recipients. The version received by the DVLA contains Vehicles with confirmed LOS reports onlv and as such the DVLA version contains:
DVLA File Logic:
Vehicle Records on the DVLA file since its last file:
Confirmed LOS reports added since last file,
• FOU reports added since the last file, for vehicles which already have LOS’ report. (so no longer in a status of stolen)
- Confirmed LOS reports deleted since the last file (included as recoveries/FOU).
- Confirmed LOS reports weeded since the last file.
Therefore, the likely difference in data held by PNC and the DVLA related to Vehicle records with unconfirmed LOS reports.
For context in July 2025, there were 314,729 LOS reports (unconfirmed and confirmed) on the PNC Vehicles application.
Please let me know if any further detail is required to support.
Thanks,
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[almost an entire page redacted]
Many thanks – that would be good for us. Could you send an invite please
Regards
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2. New document (?) undated, no headers
Subject: RE: Correspondence
Hi [redacted]
Noting your availability, I could do 1000-1100 on Thursday if this works?
[large redaction]
3. New document (?) undated, no headers
Subject: RE: Correspondence
HI [redaction]
I’m just following up on the below—are you able to assist NAO colleagues with their below ask to meet?
We are happy to facilitate and set some time up if helpful.
Kind regards,
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4. New document (?) undated, no headers
Subject: RE: Correspondence
[large redaction]
Thanks for responding so promptly. I suggest the best thing for us to do in the first instance is have a chat and you can talk us through the process and go from there. Do you have any availability either this week or next for a 30 minute teams call? I can do any day except Wednesdays.
Thanks
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5. New document (?) undated, no headers
Subject: RE: Correspondence
Hi [large redaction]
I hope that you are well. With respect to Stolen Vehicles, the current procedure on the PNC and in the future LEDS, a stolen report is added to the Vehicle record. This action places the vehicle on a vehicle Of interest list which is shared with ANPR systems to enable action to be taken when the vehicle is observed on the .ANPR systems.
I can try and get a latest court of vehicles with stolen reports if that is helpful
Thanks
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6. New document (?) undated, no headers
Subject: RE: Correspondence
HI [redacted]
I have copied in [redacted] who works on the Law Enforcement Data Service (LEDS)
[redacted] are you able to provide further details below?
Kind regards
[large redaction]
7. New document (?) undated, no headers
Subject: Correspondence
[redacted]
Hi,
We’ve received some correspondence about stolen vehicle data held by the police and DVLA. Would you be able to put us in touch with someone so we could understand a bit more about it?
Happy to chat if helpful.
Thanks,
[redacted]
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