Vehicle thefts recorded by DVLA a third lower than police numbers
New data has revealed a substantial gap between vehicle thefts in England and Wales reported by the DVLA and by police forces.
Loss adjusting and claims solutions group QuestGates has found that in each of the last three years DVSA figures are more than 30% lower than those recorded by constabularies in England and Wales.
In 2023 the DVLA recorded 101,551 vehicle thefts compared to 133,288 reported by police, in 2024 the figures were 95,589 compared to 127,629 and last year the two totals were 86,113 and 115,084.
Philip Swift, technical director, motor, at QuestGates, said: “Using Freedom of Information requests to 44 individual constabularies, this new research provides much-needed clarity around the true extent of the UK vehicle theft risk. The headline finding is the 30% difference between official police and DVLA stolen vehicle figures, and the fact that the discrepancy is increasing year-on-year, up 2.4% since 2023.
“While it is reassuring that the downward theft trend follows across both sources, the lack of data alignment has real-world implications, affecting everything from insurance claims handling to vehicle recovery rates.”
Statistics
Swift continued: “As to why the DVLA figures are always lower than the police’s reported crime statistics, a prime suspect is the archaic two-stage process known as weeding. This requires reports of vehicle taking to be first input and later confirmed by the police. Failure to confirm results in records being automatically deleted from the Lost or Stolen databases.
“Weeded registrations will no longer appear on the Police National Computer. They therefore will not flag on Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras, significantly decreasing the chances of recovery. Some constabularies are very good at confirming, others less so.
“The problem is such that we have developed in-house procedures to alert our insurer clients to relevant Lost or Stolen status changes.”
