Accredited official statistics

Vehicle excise duty evasion statistics: 2015

Unlicensed vehicles ‘in traffic’ and ‘in stock’ in the UK and the revenue potentially lost through vehicle excise duty (car tax) evasion.

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Details

In 2015:

  • an estimated 1.4% of vehicles in traffic on roads in the United Kingdom were unlicensed (evading Vehicle Excise Duty), compared with 0.6% in 2013
  • the increase is probably largely due to changes to the vehicle licensing system which were introduced in October 2014
  • VED evasion at the levels estimated could have cost around £80 million in lost revenue in the UK over the course of a year, approximately 1.4% of the total due. Some of this revenue will have been recovered through DVLA enforcement activity or through vehicle keepers back-licensing their vehicles

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Updates to this page

Published 26 November 2015

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