Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of uninsured vehicles in the UK; and how many vehicles were seized for unpaid insurance in each year since 2009-10.
Since 2011 the Government has had in place an insurance and compliance strategy, namely the Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) scheme operated by DVLA and the Motor Insurers Bureau, which aims to reduce the level of uninsured driving.
It is estimated that CIE has already helped reduce levels of uninsured driving from 1.4 million in 2010 to 1 million vehicles now.
The police have powers under Section 165A of the Road Traffic Act 1988 to seize a vehicle that is being used on a public road without motor insurance. How police enforce the law is an operational matter for their discretion.
The table below shows the number of vehicles seized by the police for driving without insurance.
Year | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
vehicles seized | 180,000 | 150,000 | 140,000 | 137,000 | 135,000 | 116,000 | 121,000 |