A new report by QuestGates has identified a gap of more than 30% between the number of stolen vehicles recorded by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and those reported by police constabularies across England and Wales, with the discrepancy increasing each year.
The research, published by QuestGates, found that in 2025, the DVLA recorded 86,113 stolen vehicles, while police forces reported 115,084, a difference of 33.64%. The gap stood at 33.52% in 2024, when the DVLA recorded 95,589 vehicles against 127,629 reported by constabularies. In 2023, the figure was 31.25%, with 101,551 DVLA records compared with 133,288 police-reported thefts. The findings represent a year-on-year widening of approximately 2.4 percentage points since 2023.
QuestGates gathered the police data through Freedom of Information requests submitted 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,” said Philip Swift, technical director – motor at QuestGates. “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.”
The report points to a data management procedure known as “weeding” as a likely driver of the disparity. Under the current process, vehicle theft reports must be entered into police systems and subsequently confirmed by officers. Where confirmation does not occur, records are automatically deleted from the Lost or Stolen (LoS) databases and no longer appear on the Police National Computer (PNC).
Swift said: “While it is reassuring that the downward theft trend is reflected across both sources, the lack of data alignment has real-world implications, affecting everything from insurance claims handling to vehicle recovery rates. 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 (LoS) databases.”
The consequences extend beyond data accuracy. Vehicles removed from LoS databases no longer appear as flagged on Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras, the report notes, reducing the likelihood of recovery.
Despite the data gap, both sources confirm a downward trend in overall vehicle theft in England and Wales over the three-year period covered by the report.
