4.7 NaVCIS Costs & Recovery

Following a request made of the NPCC, FOI Ref: 2233/2025, which was refused citing s.14 – vexatious, the below and associated links are submitted to support an Internal Review request.

Apparently, NaVCIS (retired police officers?) do not cost the taxpayer a penny. Yet;

NaVCIS calculates the required budget/funding required for the financial year, then the decision is the FLAs as to how they will recoup the money from their members

Possibly the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) ‘take it on the chin’; pay for the service without passing the cost onto consumers in one way or another?

For 2023 to 2024 NaVCIS funding was reported to be £2,193,524

For reasons explained, it is difficult to obtain accurate, comprehensive information about UK vehicle taking statistics. However, a year-on-year comparison can be undertaken by use of consistently recorded notifications of ‘stolen’ vehicles, namely those VRMs (vehicle registration marks) that reach to DVLA, are recorded on PNC as ‘LoS’.

The NaVCIS data is as follows for ‘cars’

In 2023, of the VRMs NaVCIS recorded on the PNC as LoS on the PNC, 746 were conveyed to the DVLA
Of these 746, during 2023, 52.95% are recorded as recovered.

In 2024, 170 fewer vehicles NaVCIS recorded as LoS on the PNC reached the DVLA, a total of 576.
Of these, 355 were recorded as ‘recovered’, 61.63%.

It appears NaVCIS funding increased in 2024 by £264,041; from £1,929,483 to £2,193,524 despite the srop-off in PNC notifications reaching the DVLA.

If NaVCIS places every vehicle, in respect of which they are instructed, to PNC LoS, their average cost per vehicle in 2024 was £3,808.20* (£2,193,524 divided by the number of LoS records, 576).

*an approximation – complicated by the DVLA LoS records being for calendar year whereas NaVCIS funding appears to run from May annually.

Why does NaVCIS place a VRM to PNC LoS (and in turn record the VRMs as stolen with the DVLA), and why would this not be every VRM in respect of which they are instructed?

The above Telegraph article conveyed:

NaVCIS recorded a 29 per cent increase in stolen vehicles being shipped through UK ports in the second quarter of 2024. It believes that the 10 to 15 cars it recovers a week are just the tip of the iceberg

The DVLA LoS data conveys:

21 recoveries in the 1st quarter of 2024 (January, February & March)
15 recoveries in the 2nd quarter of 2024 (April, May & June)

It appears there may be a difference between knowledge of an increase in port shipments and actual recoveries, or a reason why vehicle numbers seized (generally or at ports) are not reflected in the DVLA data, which does not convey 10 to 15 cars per week* i.e. 120 vehicles per quarter.

*The DVLA data is unlikely to be all notifications to NaVCIS – the request is intended to assist in understanding the records received.

NaVCIS recovers 10 to 15 cars/week. At 10 cars/week, this equates to 520/annum. This figure cannot be reconciled with the DVLA LoS data.

The tip of what iceberg, that of NaVCIS ‘wanted’ vehicles or of the LoS pool generally? Presumably the latter. If so, there appears to be more reason to review available data and how the issues are being addressed.

There may be plausible, logical explanations for what appears to be anomalies in the data but in the absence of the requested information, informed comment/conclusion is not possible.

It appears NaVCIS possess a significant amount of data in a redily retrievable format – some has been conveyed to the Telegrpah reporter – why not in response to an FoIA request

Upon consideration, it is difficult to accept NaVCIS do not cost the taxpayer a penny. Aside of their own staffing experience (the training pre-engagement with NaVCIS, knowledge and expertise that accompanies an employee), the act of placing a VRM to PNC is highly likely to engage constabulary technology (ANPR for example). Whilst this may be a relatively low outlay, who intercepts the ‘wanted’ (LoS) cars, seizes and stores them if not the constabulary alerted to them.

NEXT PAGE – NaVCIS LoS Skewing the figures?

The Request & Refusal:

The Internal Review (IR) submissions are provided on the associated pages: