Does an ATF have to check the VIN as well as the registration?

The Certificate of Destruction has to carry both. Schedule 3 of the End-of-Life Vehicles Regulations 2003 lists "Vehicle nationality mark and registration number" and "Vehicle identification number (chassis)" as content the certificate must contain, and DVLA's INF169 guide asks for the VRM, the VIN and the V5C check digit on every one. You cannot fill those in truthfully without reading both off the car.

Can a Certificate of Destruction be cancelled if the details were wrong?

No. DVLA's INF169, Annex E: "Once a CoD is issued there is no legal provision to cancel or reverse this." A certificate issued against the wrong VIN or plate stays issued.

Who is responsible if a yard takes a vehicle without checking who sold it?

Under section 11 of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 a dealer "must not receive scrap metal from a person without verifying the person's full name and address", from "a reliable and independent source". If that is breached, the Act says each of these is guilty of an offence: the dealer, the site manager where the metal was received, and any person given the job of verifying the name and address. A motor salvage operator is a scrap metal dealer under section 21.

What does the Environment Agency expect at the gate?

The ELV appropriate measures, section 3.2: "You must check and validate all transfer documentation and resolve discrepancies before you accept the ELVs", and acceptance procedures "to check that the ELV received matches the information you obtained during pre-acceptance". A plate that does not match the VIN is a discrepancy.

What does BreakerHQ check at the gate?

The reg with DVLA, and the VIN with DVSA. DVSA never gives out a VIN, but it will look one up and answer with the plate it holds for that VIN. If that plate is not the one on the car, the line turns amber before you have booked it in. We do not tell you whether a car is stolen, and we do not issue the certificate. You do that on DVLA's service with your permit.

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25 September 2026

Check the VIN and the reg: two numbers, one certificate you cannot take back

A Focus comes off a transporter with a plate on the back, a smaller plate in the corner of the windscreen, and a seller who has somewhere to be. Two numbers, and nobody has yet checked that they belong to the same car. From next Thursday one of them goes on a Defra receipt inside two working days. Both of them already go on a certificate that DVLA will never let you take back.

Both numbers are on the certificate

The Certificate of Destruction is not a form you fill in as best you can. Regulation 29 of the End-of-Life Vehicles Regulations says it "shall contain at least the information listed in Schedule 3", and Schedule 3 lists, among the seven items, "Vehicle nationality mark and registration number" and "Vehicle identification number (chassis)". DVLA’s own guide for the form asks for the VRM, the VIN and the check digit off the V5C, and for the name, address and nationality of the person handing the car over.

So the certificate says: this registration and this chassis were one vehicle, and it was destroyed here. If the plate belonged to a different car, the certificate is wrong about which car died. And DVLA is plain about what happens next. INF169, Annex E: "Once a CoD is issued there is no legal provision to cancel or reverse this." There is no undo. The record of the car that was really on your ramp stays alive, and the car that was somewhere else that afternoon is dead on paper.

Who is responsible

Two answers, from two Acts. The ELV Regulations put the certificate on the ATF, and regulation 31 makes contravening regulation 27, the duty to issue it, an offence.

The second answer is the one people forget applies to a breaker at all. The Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 says a person "carries on business as a motor salvage operator" if the business consists "wholly or partly in recovering salvageable parts from motor vehicles for re-use or sale and subsequently selling or otherwise disposing of the rest of the vehicle for scrap", and that such a person is a scrap metal dealer for the whole Act. That is your business, described by a civil servant. Section 11 then says a dealer "must not receive scrap metal from a person without verifying the person’s full name and address", and the verification "must be by reference to documents, data or other information obtained from a reliable and independent source".

Then it says who answers for it. If metal is received in breach, "each of the following is guilty of an offence": the dealer, "if the metal is received at a site, the site manager", and "any person who, under arrangements made by" either of them, "has responsibility for verifying the name and address". Three people, and the lad on the gate is the third. The defence, in the same section, is that you "made arrangements" to stop it happening and "took all reasonable steps" to see they were followed. A written check at the gate is the arrangement. The seller who gives a false name commits their own offence under the same section, which is some comfort and no protection.

What the Environment Agency expects

The permit side says the same thing in its own words. The appropriate measures for ELV sites, section 3.2: "You must check and validate all transfer documentation and resolve discrepancies before you accept the ELVs", and you "must record any non-conformances". A V5C for one car and a chassis number for another is a discrepancy, and the measure says resolve it before the car is yours, not after the shell has gone.

Who carries each check

The four identity checks on an arriving vehicle and who the rule puts them on, from the ELV Regulations 2003, INF169, the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 and the EA appropriate measures
Check	Rule	Who
The reg and the VIN on the certificate	ELV Regulations 2003, regulation 29 and Schedule 3. INF169 4.5.	The ATF. Regulation 31 makes a breach of regulation 27 an offence.
The seller’s full name and address, from an independent source	Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013, section 11.	The dealer, the site manager, and whoever was given the job. All three.
Paperwork that does not match the car	EA appropriate measures, section 3.2, paragraph 9.	The permit holder. Resolve it before accepting, or record a non-conformance.
Telling DVLA the car has gone to an ATF	GOV.UK, scrapped and written off vehicles.	The keeper. Their duty, not yours, and the certificate is what proves it.

What BreakerHQ does at the gate

Two checks, before the car is booked in. Type the reg and DVLA tells you what it holds for that plate: make, colour, and whether it is a car or a van. Type the VIN and DVSA looks it up and answers with the plate it holds for that chassis. If that plate is not the one you typed, the line turns amber and says so. Both answers are saved on the vehicle, so the certificate you fill in later on DVLA’s service is copied from numbers that were checked, not from memory.

Three honest limits. We do not tell you a car is stolen. Nobody sells that to a yard, and a matching VIN and plate is not proof of an honest seller. We do not yet take the seller’s name and address, so the section 11 check is still yours to write down at the gate, and it goes on DVLA’s form with the nationality. And we do not issue the certificate. DVLA has no way in for software, so you do that with your permit, and we record that it was done.

Set up your yard now

The seller with somewhere to be can wait the twenty seconds it takes to read a windscreen. The certificate cannot.