MP lays out insurance clampdown

Added on Monday, April 18th, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Systems to tackle uninsured drivers and riders moved a step closer today as Road Safety Minister Mike Penning laid the final regulations in Parliament.

Under new “Continuous Insurance Enforcement”, it will become an offence to keep an uninsured vehicle unless the vehicle has been declared off the road via a Statutory Off-Road Notice (SORN). Under the previous system, it was only an offence to drive a vehicle whilst uninsured.

DVLA records will be compared to records held on the Motor Insurer’s Bureau (MIB) database and the registered keeper of any vehicle that is shown as neither being insured or declared SORN will receive a warning.

The regulations laid today will allow the DVLA to take action against those who ignore warnings to get their vehicle insured, which can include a £100 fine as well immobilisation, seizure and the destroying of the vehicle.

It is hoped that the move will reduce the number of uninsured motorists, with the latest estimates putting the figure at around 4% (around 1.4 million) of GB motorists. The penalty for driving without insurance is a maximum fine of £5,000 and 6-8 penalty points. Around 242,000 offenders are convicted for uninsured driving every year.

“Uninsured drivers injure 23,000 people each year and add £30 to every responsible motorist’s premium so we need to do everything we can to keep them off the roads,” said Mr Penning.

“These new powers will help us to take targeted action while freeing up police time to deal with the hard core of offenders.”

It is planned for the first insurance advisory letters (which warn individuals that they appear to be uninsured) to be sent at the end of June following a publicity campaign to raise awareness of the CIE scheme.

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