canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/gov.uk/gov-uk

# Gov Uk Vehicle Enquiry API

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for Vehicle Enquiry API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. The DVLA Vehicle Enquiry API returns information about a UK-registered vehicle from its registration number, including make, colour, fuel type, CO2 emissions, MOT status, tax status, and year of manufacture. It exposes a single POST /v1/vehicles operation that takes a registration number and returns the DVLA's authoritative record. The API is the canonical source for UK vehicle metadata used in insurance quoting, fleet onboarding, and parking enforcement workflows.

## For AI agents

Look up authoritative DVLA records for a UK vehicle from its registration number, including make, fuel type, MOT, tax, and CO2 emissions.

## Scope

Does not return owner, keeper, address, or insurance data - use for DVLA vehicle metadata lookup only.

## Capabilities

- Retrieve DVLA vehicle details from a UK registration number via POST /v1/vehicles
- Surface MOT status and tax status for compliance and insurance workflows
- Read CO2 emissions, fuel type, and engine capacity for emissions reporting
- Confirm year of manufacture, make, and primary colour for fleet onboarding
- Validate that a registration number corresponds to an active DVLA record

## Use cases

### Insurance Quote Pre-Fill

Insurance agents pre-fill a quote form by sending the customer's registration number to POST /v1/vehicles and reading back make, fuel type, engine capacity, and CO2 emissions. This removes manual entry and ensures the quote is based on the DVLA's authoritative record. Coverage is limited to UK-registered vehicles, and the endpoint does not return owner or address details.

Example prompt: Call POST /v1/vehicles with registrationNumber=AA19AAA and return make, yearOfManufacture, fuelType, and co2Emissions for quote pre-fill.

### Fleet Onboarding and MOT Compliance

Fleet operators onboarding a new vehicle verify MOT and tax status against the DVLA in real time. The single Vehicle Enquiry endpoint returns motStatus and taxStatus alongside motExpiryDate and taxDueDate, so the agent can flag vehicles that are not road-legal before assigning them to a driver. The API does not return service history or insurance status.

Example prompt: POST /v1/vehicles for each registration in a fleet CSV and produce a list of vehicles where motStatus is not 'Valid'.

### Emissions and Clean Air Zone Pre-Check

Apps that determine whether a vehicle is liable for a Clean Air Zone or ULEZ charge use the Vehicle Enquiry API to read fuelType, co2Emissions, and engineCapacity. The returned values feed directly into the local zone's fee logic without needing a manual VED band lookup.

Example prompt: POST /v1/vehicles with a registration number and route the vehicle to the correct CAZ pricing tier based on fuelType and co2Emissions.

### Agent Lookup via Jentic

An AI assistant answering 'is this car taxed?' uses Jentic to discover the DVLA Vehicle Enquiry endpoint, load the request schema, and execute the call without scraping the DVLA website. The agent receives the structured response and can quote tax and MOT dates back to the user in natural language.

Example prompt: Use the Jentic SDK to search 'check uk vehicle details by registration', load POST /v1/vehicles, and execute with the user's plate.

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| POST | /v1/vehicles | Look up DVLA vehicle details by registration number |

## Key resources

- **Vehicles** — Single POST endpoint returning DVLA vehicle metadata from a registration number

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring the DVLA Vehicle Enquiry API by hand means registering for a DVLA-issued x-api-key, setting it on each request, and choosing between the production and UAT hosts yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import the Vehicle Enquiry API from the API Directory, store the key once, and your agent calls it.
- **Permission scoping:** This API exposes a single vehicle lookup that takes the registration number in the request body rather than a resource id in the path, so limit the agent to that one operation. You choose the operations it may call, so the agent cannot reach anything you have not included.
- **Credential handling:** Your DVLA-issued x-api-key is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'check uk vehicle details by registration', and Jentic returns the vehicle lookup operation with its request schema so the agent can populate registrationNumber without reading DVLA's docs.

## Related APIs

- **TomTom Search API** — Place and address search to pair with vehicle data in fleet workflows
- **OpenCage Geocoding API** — Forward and reverse geocoding for UK addresses adjacent to vehicle records
- **HERE Maps APIs** — Commercial mapping and routing platform - pick when broader vehicle and traffic data is needed

## FAQ

### Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for Vehicle Enquiry API?

The DVLA does not publish an OpenAPI specification for this service. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call Vehicle Enquiry API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.

### What authentication does the Vehicle Enquiry API use?

The Jentic-generated spec exposes no security scheme on the public POST /v1/vehicles operation, but in production the DVLA gateway requires an x-api-key header issued by the DVLA API team (DvlaAPIAccess@dvla.gov.uk). When called via Jentic, the issued key is stored in your Jentic One instance and injected at execution time.

### Can I look up a vehicle's owner with this API?

No. POST /v1/vehicles returns only vehicle metadata - make, colour, fuel type, CO2, year of manufacture, MOT status, and tax status. It does not return keeper, owner, or address details. Owner data requires a separate DVLA service governed by stricter access rules.

### What are the rate limits for the Vehicle Enquiry API?

The Jentic spec does not declare rate limits. The DVLA enforces limits at the gateway tied to your issued key, with separate quotas for test and production environments. Cache per-registration responses since DVLA records change infrequently.

### How do I retrieve vehicle details through Jentic?

Search Jentic with 'check uk vehicle details by registration', load the POST /v1/vehicles operation, and execute with a registrationNumber field in the body. The Jentic SDK returns the DVLA response as a typed object so the agent can read fields like motStatus directly.

### Does this API cover Northern Ireland or non-UK vehicles?

Coverage is for UK-registered vehicles held on the DVLA database. Northern Ireland vehicles are included where DVLA holds the record, but vehicles registered outside the UK will return a not-found response.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the Vehicle Enquiry API?

Yes. Jentic One runs on your own infrastructure and you decide which operations the agent may call, so you can allow only the single POST /v1/vehicles lookup and nothing else. Because the endpoint takes a registration number in the request body and returns just DVLA vehicle metadata, the agent cannot reach owner, keeper, or address data or any operation you have not included. Your DVLA-issued x-api-key is held by your Jentic One instance and injected only when that permitted call runs, never exposed to the agent.