A vehicle registration certificate is an official document providing proof of registration of a vehicle. It is used primarily by governments as a means of ensuring that all road vehicles are on the national

vehicle register The Vehicle register in the United Kingdom is a database of motor vehicles. It is a legal requirement in the UK for most types of motor vehicle to be registered if they are to be used on the public road. All new and imported vehicles are required ...

, but is also used as a form of law enforcement and to facilitate change of ownership when buying and selling a vehicle.

European Union and European Economic Area

In the

European Economic Area The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade As ...

( EU,

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constitutional monarchy ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

), vehicle registration certificates are governed by the

European directive A directive is a legal act of the European Union that requires member states to achieve a particular result without dictating the means of achieving that result. Directives first have to be enacted into national law by member states before thei ...

1999/37/EC. The information contained in these registration certificates includes: * Vehicle registration number * Personal data of the individual to whom the vehicle is registered *

Vehicle identification number A vehicle identification number (VIN) (also called a chassis number or frame number) is a unique code, including a serial number, used by the automotive industry to identify individual motor vehicles, towed vehicles, motorcycles, scooters ...

(VIN) * Engine specifications * Exhaust emissions

United Kingdom

In the UK the document (V5C) was previously referred to as the "log book", and this name is still common usage. The document is issued by the

DVLA The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA; cy, Asiantaeth Trwyddedu Gyrwyr a Cherbydau) is the organisation of the UK government responsible for maintaining a database of drivers in Great Britain and a database of vehicles for the entire ...

and tracks the registered keeper of the vehicle, rather than the owner. When a vehicle is transferred, exported, scrapped or had major modification (new engine, chassis or factors affecting the taxation class) the form is returned to the DVLA, who issue a new document, if appropriate, with the amended details.

2001 redesign

A new design was issued in 2001 to comply with EC directive 2001/127/EC? (or 2003/127/EC), not as a result of a theft of blank forms in the same year.

Red forms

In 2011 and 2012, a programme was launched to replace the previous blue forms with new red forms as a result of "theft of a number of blank V5Cs". The theft may have been of several hundred thousand forms in 2007 and 2008, or the loss of over two million forms reported in 2008. Both or either incidents may relate to blank forms returned to a supplier in 2006 for overprinting which were eventually sent to be destroyed. The police ( NVCIS) launched "Operation Drift" to recover stolen forms, over a thousand being recovered. The relevant serial numbers of the illegal V5Cs are either (according to the police): * BG 8407501 – BG 8431000 * BG 9167501 – BG 9214000 * BG 9282001 – BG 9305000 * BI 2305501 – BI 2800000 or, according to the DVLA reported in Parker's: * BG 8229501 - BG 9999030 * BI 2305501 - BI 2800000

References

External links