The process of allowing a stolen marker to fall off the Police National Computer (PNC) Lost or Stolen (LoS) register appears to have no benefits, just disadvantages.
08/2024, the process was helpfully described by the National Police Chiefs Council in response to an FoIA request:
- When a force puts on a Lost or Stolen (LOS) report – unless there is a Crime or other Police Reference, this will be logged as ‘unconfirmed’ where the circumstances are not yet fully known.
- With an ‘unconfirmed’ LOS report, these will as has been raised by the originator be weeded off automatically at 6 weeks.
- Prior to this, at the 4 week mark the force will be notified by way of a Daily Action File (DAF) which will highlight an unconfirmed LOS Marker.
- Should no action be made on that repot it will be weeded 2 weeks later when the report has reached 6 weeks as not confirmed crime has taken place.
- Should the circumstances be known and the marker is shown as ‘confirmed’ the entry will remain on the application for 6 years from the date of the original input.
- At each annual anniversary of the marker, the force will be notified by way of DAF that there is a LOS confirmed marker for the force to confirm this is still correct.
- This annual review was added at the last review of the process (which was undertaken more than 5 years ago),prior to this, the DAF was sent on the 6 year mark advising weeding
The NPCC did not hold information captured by the request. which engaged S21 (information
reasonably accessible to you)- the information sought being detailed within the PNC User Manual at page 175 (9.1 Vehicle Reported Lost or Stolen (or Obtained by Deception)#VU –
The Page 175 extract is as follows – see section 9.4 below:
The PNC User Manual, version 20.01
Official
Chapter 2
- USING THE APPLICATION – PROCEDURES
9.1. Vehicle Reported Lost or Stolen (or Obtained by Deception) #VU
The #VU transaction (vehicle update) should be completed to determine whether any reports are held for the
vehicle. If a record is retrieved, but is marked NO REPORTS, a LOS report should be created. If no vehicle
record is found, the details should be verified for accuracy before a new Police Record and accompanying
LOS report are created. If there is a positive response (i.e. the computer shows an existing report or the
record is Blocked), the consequent action depends on the type of response received. Follow-up actions for
the most likely situations are:
9.1.1. Type of Response
- REM Action: Tell the complainant of the location of the vehicle, with a view to
their recovering it. The report should subsequently be deleted. - ACT/INF/RES/SEE Action: Enter a LOS report as appropriate and initiate any further action
required, including contacting the forces which originated the existing report. N.B. the security
aspect of RES reports should be observed. - FOU
Action: If the vehicle has been repossessed by a finance company, tell the
complainant of the repossession and inform the originating station so that they may delete their
report.
In other circumstances, contact the originator of the FOU report, discover where the vehicle is
and tell the owner. Enter a LOS report and include the incident date(s), which must be on or
before the date of the FOU report. When the reports are no longer required both the LOS and
FOU reports should be deleted (see Pair Deletion in section 8.2). - LOS Action: Contact the originator of the existing report, or the UK SIRENE
Bureau if the LOS originates from abroad. It is likely that an error is involved and either an
outdated report has not been deleted or the theft has been reported twice. An outdated
unpaired LOS report must be deleted before a further LOS report may be entered. - SIS Action: Follow the instructions in the Schengen Alert and contact the UK
SIRENE Bureau for advice.
Appropriate text must be recorded for all report types, except SIS. Whenever an error is suspected in a
report this MUST always be checked with the owner or originator of that report. It is the responsibility of the
force owning the report to correct it.
9.1.2. Vehicle Stolen in Different Force Area
When a vehicle is reported stolen to one force, and the theft occurred in a different force area, the force
receiving the information should provide it as soon as possible to the force in which the crime occurred so
that the latter may take ownership of the LOS report on PNC.
9.1.3. ——- ——-.
9.2. Vehicle Re-Stolen Prior to Recovery by Loser
Where a vehicle is retaken from a location before being recovered, unless there is evidence to the contrary,
this should be treated as a continuance of the original theft and not recorded as a further crime. The force
dealing with the initial theft is therefore responsible for the relevant PNC entries.
9.3. Vehicle Reported Lost or Stolen and Record Shows Incorrect Engine Number
When a vehicle is lost or stolen and the owner notifies the reporting station that the engine number is
incorrect (new engine perhaps, and DVLA not notified) then the following procedures should be adopted:
Create a LOS report on the vehicle in the normal way, but include in the text clear indications
that the engine number shown has not been stolen. Include details of the new engine and the
fact that it is on the Property database (see third bullet point).
- Create a CORrection report on the vehicle, including details of the new engine, and arrange to
notify the DVLA via a form V79. The owner should also be told to inform the DVLA direct. - Create a LOS report on the Property database for the new engine and cross-refer to the stolen
vehicle VRM. See details in Property chapter of this Manual, Chapter 3, section 6.
If the vehicle is recovered intact then both LOS reports should be cancelled. Similarly, if a vehicle is stolen
and the engine has previously been removed but it is still shown on the record, then only the first two actions
above will be necessary.
9.4. Confirmation of LOS Reports
It is important that a LOS report is confirmed within 48 hours of the time of report of theft, because until
the report is confirmed the DVLA at Swansea are not notified of the theft. Any activity on the DVLA record of
the vehicle in question would not be referred to the police for investigation during this time. However,
Experian, HPI, Retainagroup, Vehicle Information Services, NaVCIS and Interpol are informed of
unconfirmed reports.
9.5. Reminders and Weeding of Unconfirmed LOS reports
For an unconfirmed LOS report, PNC Operations will issue a reminder 2 weeks after the date of the online
entry and the report will be deleted after 6 weeks if not confirmed.
9.6. Reminders and Weeding of Confirmed LOS reports
After a LOS report has been confirmed, the entry will remain on the application for 6 years from the date of
the original input, unless the vehicle is recovered. After this time the report is deleted. Forces are notified of
impending deletion one month in advance. If a force wishes the entry to remain on the system beyond this
period, a fresh entry of the original details is required. It is recommended that this is done selectively, rather
than routinely for all vehicles, following a review of the individual circumstances.
9.7. DVLA Actions
When PNC notifies the DVLA of the theft of a vehicle (confirmed LOS reports only) the Force/Station Code of
the owner of the LOS report is included in the notification. Any subsequent licensing or change of keeper
transaction for that vehicle will result in a Report for Further Action (RFA – forms CL07 and VQ13) being sent
by the DVLA to the force owning the report, for investigation.