Evasion of vehicle excise duty: fifth report of session 2007-08, report, together with formal minutes and oral and written evidence

Evasion of vehicle excise duty (VED) rose to 5 per cent (£214 million) in 2006, up from 3.6 per cent in 2005. Amongst motorcyclists, the evasion rate increased to 38 per cent from 30 per cent the previous year. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), overseen by the Department for Transport, is tasked with tackling evasion. The Agency had accepted that it would not achieve its targets of reducing evasion to 2.5 per cent by December 2007, and saving £70 million a year by the end of 2007-08. Not licensing a vehicle and registering the keeper increasingly reflect the intention to avoid congestion charges and prevent identification of criminals, as well as the actual evasion of VED. Problems are also caused by false and foreign number plates. The report notes DVLA's lack of resources to undertake on-the-road enforcement. It questions the effectiveness of the DVLA's current enforcement approach, and whether the DVLA understands the patterns and motivations for evasion well enough to design fully effective counter-measures. Working with partner organisations such as the police and local authorities is the best way to tackle persistent offenders. In the medium term the DVLA may need to move to increasingly advanced technological solutions, such as the insertion of electronic chips into number plates.