Vehicle enforcement data for Great Britain
Statistical data sets about vehicle enforcement checks, including prohibitions issued, top offences for prosecution and top defects.
About this data set
This data set comes from data held by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA).
It isn’t classed as an ‘official statistic’. This means it’s not subject to scrutiny and assessment by the UK Statistics Authority.
Vehicle enforcement checks at roadside and operators’ premises
As a commercial driver, you might be asked to stop by the police or a DVSA officer. They can stop lorries, buses and coaches.
The police and DVSA have the power to carry out spot checks on your vehicle and issue prohibitions if necessary. A prohibition prevents you from driving until you get a problem with your vehicle fixed.
Police and DVSA officers can also issue fixed penalties if you commit an offence. Some of these are graduated depending on the circumstances and seriousness of the offence.
Light goods vehicles (LGVs) shown in the tables include light goods vehicles, cars, motorcycles, taxis, private hire cars and non-testable vehicles (eg mobile cranes, diggers and non-HGV trailers). The figures exclude vehicles that were sifted.
This data table is updated every 3 months.
Severity of defects and offences
The offence band relates to the severity of the offence, with band 1 containing the least serious offences and band 5 containing the most serious. The categories are:
- category 1 - an immediate prohibition including an immediate brake, steering or tyre defect
- category 2 - an immediate prohibition not falling within category 1
- category 3 - a delayed prohibition including a brake, steering or tyre defect
- category 4 - a delayed prohibition not falling within category 3
This data table is updated every 3 months.
Impounding
This figure will be reported annually due to the low number of vehicles impounded. These are the actual number for which the appeal period has passed and any challenge has been dismissed.
This data table is no longer updated from 2019 onwards.
Maintenance assessments and outcomes
The number of assessments reported here is less than the number actually carried out. This is because multi-site assessments are treated as a single assessment in this table.
The figures include both targeted and non-targeted assessments.
This data table is updated every 3 months.
Most common offences for prosecution
There are a small number of other offences included in the overall figures, which aren’t reported separately in these tables.
These data tables are updated every 3 months.
Top 10 prohibition defects as a percentage of all vehicles inspected
Multiple occurrences of the same defect item are only counted once in these tables.
HGV vehicles
This data table is updated every 3 months.
HGV trailers
This data table is updated every 3 months.
PSVs
This data table is updated every 3 months.
LGVs
LGVs are classified as up to 3,500kg.
This data table is updated every 3 months.
Cars
This data table is updated every 3 months.
Taxis and private hire vehicles
This data table is updated every 3 months.
Transport of hazardous goods
This data table is updated every 3 months.
Updates to this page
Last updated 19 September 2024 + show all updates
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Updated to include data from January to March 2024.
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Updated to include data from July to December 2023.
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Updated with data up to June 2023.
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Updated with data up to March 2023.
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Updated with data up to December 2022.
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Updated with data up to September 2022.
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Updated with data up to June 2022.
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Updated with data up to March 2022.
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Updated with data up to December 2021.
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Updated with data for July to September 2019.
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Updated with data for April 2019 to June 2019.
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Updated with data for April 2018 to March 2019.
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Updated with data for April 2017 to March 2018.
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Updated with data for April 2016 to March 2017.
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Updated with data for April 2015 to March 2016.
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First published.