Accredited official statistics
Vehicle Excise Duty evasion statistics: 2011
Estimates of the proportion of traffic and vehicles that evaded vehicle excise duty in Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 2011.
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Details
Estimates of VED evasion are derived by directly observing registration marks from traffic at various sites around the country and comparing these with records held by the government licensing agencies.
In 2011:
- 0.7% of traffic on both British roads and roads in Northern Ireland was driving without a valid tax disc
- the lowest rate of evasion was seen in the bus (0.1%) and goods vehicles (0.4%) tax classes
- the highest rate was seen in the motorcycle tax class (2.1%)
- private and light goods vehicle tax class (PLG), which accounts for about 89% of all licensed vehicles, had an evasion rate of 0.7%
- overall rate of unlicensed vehicles ‘in stock’ in Great Britain was estimated to be 0.7%
- it is estimated VED evasion could have cost around £40 million in lost revenue in Great Britain in 2011 to 2012
Some of this revenue will have been recovered through DVLA enforcement activity or through vehicle keepers back-licensing their vehicles.
Technical information
Information on Vehicle Excise Duty evasion statistics, including the pre-release access list is available.
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