Vehicle Excise Duty evasion estimates: 2011

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Summary

This publication presents estimates of the proportion of traffic and number of vehicles that evaded vehicle excise duty (VED/road tax) in 2011 in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The 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.

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Vehicle Excise Duty evasion estimates: 2011 (PDF – 46 KB)

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Key points

About 0.7 per cent of traffic on both British roads and roads in Northern Ireland was driving without a valid tax disc in 2011.
The lowest rate of evasion was seen in the bus (0.1 per cent) and goods vehicles (0.4 per cent) tax classes. The highest rate was seen in the motorcycle tax class (2.1 per cent). The private and light goods vehicle tax class (PLG), which accounts for about 89 per cent of all licensed vehicles, had an evasion rate of 0.7 per cent.
The overall rate of unlicensed vehicles ‘in stock’ in Great Britain in 2011 was estimated to be 0.7 per cent. This equates to roughly 249 thousand vehicles. This is down from the 307 thousand vehicles estimated for 2010.
It is estimated that VED evasion could have cost around £40 million in lost revenue in Great Britain in 2011/12. This is down from £46 million in 2010/11.
Some of this revenue will have been recovered through DVLA enforcement activity or through vehicle keepers back-licensing their vehicles.