The law and Continuous Insurance Enforcement

ALL cars must now have continuous insurance – or be declared off-road under the Continuous Insurance Enforcement law, which became live on 20 June 2011.

The law applies to you whether you run your car privately for business as a sole trader, or if you are an SME director or business owner with a small fleet of company cars. It will now be an offence to be the keeper of an uninsured vehicle, rather than just to drive when uninsured.

It is up to the registered keeper of the vehicle to let the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) know that the car is off-road by filling in a Statutory Off Road Notice (SORN).

Ashton West, chief executive at the Motor Insurers’ Bureau, said:

“The change in law is a stepping up of enforcement activity, so that not only those vehicles driven without insurance will be caught. Now the registered keeper must make sure that their vehicle is insured all the time.

“Around four percent of vehicles have no motor insurance at any given time, and this needs to change so that is why this new enforcement approach is so important.”

Under the new Continuous Insurance Enforcement law system:

• The DVLA will work in partnership with the Motor Insurers’ Bureau to identify uninsured vehicles.

• Motorists will receive a letter telling them that their vehicle appears to be uninsured and warning them that they will be fined unless they take action.

• If the keeper fails to insure the vehicle they will be given a £100 fine.

• If the vehicle remains uninsured – regardless of whether the fine is paid – further action will be taken. If the vehicle is on public land it could then be clamped, seized and destroyed. Alternatively court action could be taken, with the offender facing a fine of up to £1,000.

• Seized vehicles would only be released when the keeper provided evidence that the registered keeper is no longer committing an offence of having no insurance and the person proposing to drive the vehicle away is insured to do so.

• Vehicles with a valid Statutory Off Road Notice (SORN) will not be required to be insured.

The new law will run alongside the existing offence of using a vehicle with no insurance, which is enforced by the police. The police seize 180,000 vehicles each year for this offence, and offenders also face a £200 fixed penalty or a court fine of up to £5,000 and possible disqualification.