The UK’s largest owner-managed loss adjusting and claims solutions group, QuestGates, has published new research showing a 30%+ difference in the motor theft data held by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency and police in England and Wales.
DVLA and Police vehicle theft totals for England & Wales
| DVLA | Police | % Difference | |
| 2025 | 86,113 | 115,084 | 33.64% |
| 2024 | 95,589 | 127,629 | 33.52% |
| 2023 | 101,551 | 133,288 | 31.25% |
Source: QuestGates analysis of DVLA and Constabulary data
Philip Swift, Technical Director – Motor at QuestGates, said, “Using Freedom of Information requests to 44 individual constabularies, this new research provides much-needed clarity around a key motor claims issue.
“The true extent of the UK vehicle theft risk. The headline finding is the 30% difference between official Police and DVLA stolen vehicle figures – almost 29,000 records last year – and the fact that the discrepancy is increasing year-on-year, up 2.4% since 2023.
“While it is reassuring that the downward theft trend follows across both sources, the lack of data alignment has real-world implications, affecting everything from insurance claims handling to vehicle recovery rates.”
He added, “As to why the DVLA figures are always lower than the police’s reported crime statistics, a prime suspect is the archaic two-stage process known as ‘weeding’. This requires reports of vehicle taking to be first input and later ‘confirmed’ by the police. Failure to confirm results in records being automatically deleted from the Lost or Stolen databases.
“Weeded registrations will no longer appear on the Police National Computer (PNC). They therefore will not flag on Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras, significantly decreasing the chances of recovery. Some constabularies are very good at confirming, others less so. The problem is such that we have developed in-house procedures to alert our insurer clients to relevant LoS status changes.”
