PFD report

Charles William WHEATLEY · Prevention of Future Deaths report

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Issued 29 Jul 2022•County Durham and Darlington

Report record

Published report and response evidence

This page connects the concerns raised in this report with statements found in recipients’ published responses. A link shows a clear evidence connection; it does not assign responsibility.

View original report
Concerns
1

Raised in this report

Recipients
3

Named on the report

Responses found
1

Of 3 recipients

Stated actions
0

Described in responses

Recipients and published responses

Source document

Full report text

This is the full text from the original published report.

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Concerns and recipient responses

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Concerns raised1

  1. Failure of the vehicle ownership system to prevent purchase and retention of cars by unlicensed drivers
Responses linked to these concerns

Each statement is shown once, even when linked to more than one concern.

Respondent positions A position is what a recipient says about a concern when it does not describe a specific action.1

  1. Position

    The law does not require a driving licence to register or keep a vehicle, including where the keeper will not drive it.

    Stated by Department for TransportDisputes the concernThe respondent disagreed with part of the concern or the basis for it.

Source evidence

How this individual concern was interpreted

PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below. Response links show a clear evidence connection; they do not assign responsibility.

PFD Monitor interpretation

Failure of the vehicle ownership system to prevent purchase and retention of cars by unlicensed drivers

Wider context from the report

“While it may not have prevented Amy’s death, it seems illogical and indeed incomprehensible to me that the system allows a person to buy a car without having a licence to drive it. In this case there was no evidence that Mr Wheatley had ever held a driving licence. I recognise that currently, the DVLA are responsible for the statutory instrument 1999/2864 which covers matters around driving entitlements and that vehicle ownership/registered keepers are catered for under an Act of Parliament (the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994) and therefore significant change in the law would be needed. However, I suspect that the public would find it difficult to understand how someone can buy and keep a car without having a licence to drive the vehicle. ”

Is this part of a recurring concern?

No recurring-concern membership is currently published.

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Source evidence

How this respondent position was interpreted

PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.

PFD Monitor interpretation

The law does not require a driving licence to register or keep a vehicle, including where the keeper will not drive it.

Verbatim wording from the response

“I note that following the inquest, you have asked why an individual is able to purchase a vehicle when they do not hold a driving licence. It may help to explain that the purpose of the vehicle register held by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), is to record details of vehicles and their registered keepers. While the DVLA requests proof of the applicant’s name and address when a vehicle is first registered, and for the driving licence number of a new keeper at subsequent keeper changes, there is no requirement in law to hold a driving licence to register a vehicle, or to become the keeper of an already registered vehicle.”

Source location

Response from Department for Transport
Page 1 · response
Published 7 October 2022

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Information checked against the published report and official responses · Data reviewed 7 Sep 2026 · About data quality and limitations

Data last updated 7 September 2026