Department slammed over tax figures

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The Department for Transport (DfT) should have spotted the "improbable" year-on-year rise in vehicle excise duty (VED) evasion by motorcyclists, the report from the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) added.

MPs also said they were "disappointed" that the National Audit Office (NAO) did not scrutinise the DfT figures more rigorously.

The committee's chairman Edward Leigh MP said he was "very concerned" that the Dft had given the committee unreliable information.

The second report on VED evasion said the committee had published a first report in January this year based on Government figures which showed that the rate of VED evasion by motorcyclists in 2006 was 38% - up from 30% the previous year.

On February 14, the DfT published new figures based on a survey carried out in June 2007 which put the motorcyclist evasion rate for 2007 at just 9.8%.

The committee said that its first report had received widespread coverage and caused considerable dismay among motorcyclists. Mr Leigh had apologised for this.

The report said: "A fall in the motorcycle rate from 45.9% to 20% between 2002 and 2004 followed by a rise to nearly 40% over the next two years is so improbable that the department should have known there were serious errors in the surveys.

"Indeed we understand that motorcycle bodies had repeatedly made this point to them. Given this, the department should have made clear to us that their figures for road tax evasion could not be relied upon."

The report went on: "We also find it incredible that from June 2007 when the data was collected, through publication of an NAO report, a PAC hearing and publication of the PAC report, the department neither suspected that the figures were wrong nor gave any indication to the committee, but instead apparently waited until February after adverse publicity to release new figures."