The Department for Transport has today published National Statistics on evasion of Vehicle Excise Duty in 2004.
Results
In Great Britain, the estimated proportion of revenue from Vehicle Excise Duty lost to evasion has fallen from 4.8 per cent in 2002/3 to 3.4 per cent in 2004/5.
As in 2002/3, over 80 percent of the loss comes from Private and Light Goods vehicles; in this category, the revenue loss has decreased by nearly 40 per cent since 2002/3 and is 20 per cent lower than in 1999/2000. Also as in 2002/3, the second largest proportion of the loss comes from motorcycles; this loss has decreased by 60 per cent since 2002/3 and is 8 per cent lower than in 1999/2000.
Evasion levels in Northern Ireland are around 10 per cent, down from 12 per cent in 2002/3.
This report presents detailed results for different vehicle types, including further comparisons with the results of earlier surveys, along with information on the way the survey was carried out.
Notes to editors
1. The survey involved contractors recording registration marks of vehicles at 256 road sites across the United Kingdom. In total, over 1.3 million valid sightings of registration marks were collected. This was the most ever, up over 50% on the 2002 survey and over 20% on the 1999 survey. This means that results should be rather more robust than in previous surveys. These were then checked against the computer record of licensed status to determine the levels of traffic observed without a valid licence. Information on traffic levels was then used to weight together the results from the different sites. Further adjustments are then made to derive estimated evasion in the total vehicle stock from that observed in the survey.
2. As explained in the report, the procedures to estimate evasion in the total vehicle stock and hence the loss of revenue due to evasion have been changed from those used in earlier surveys. Data from 1999 and 2002 have been recalculated using these new procedures. In consequence, the estimate of the percentage of revenue lost in 2002 has risen from 4.5% to 4.8%.
3. Any queries about the detail of the survey should be addressed to Michael Baxter of Statistics - Roads Division, Zone 2/16, Great Minster House, London, SW1P 4DR. Phone: 020 7944 6459; e-mail: Michael.Baxter@dft.gsi.gov.uk
4. Copies of Vehicle Excise Duty Evasion 2004 are available free of charge from SR6 Branch in DfT (telephone: 020-7944 3077), e-mail: Mu'azu.Aguye@dft.gsi.gov.uk It is also available free from the DfT website
